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Companies Dream about Filling Cloud Computing Jobs

Cloud computing jobs increased by 9 2 percent in February 2012 in comparison to numbers from February 2011. And it was up 400 percent from the same time in 2010.  More than 2,400 companies posted job ads during the last quarter of 2011 and hiring demand grew 61% year-over-year. As a result hiring managers are having trouble finding workers to fill these positions. A shortage of skilled workers means demand is high for people with cloud computing experience and development skills.

cloud computing jobsThe challenge in filling these jobs isn’t just that experience or training is needed in technology. Workers proficient in cloud computing need skills in managing process and knowledge of the law.  The shortages are restricted to technology companies either. Nearly one-third of the jobs are being created are non-IT positions, including marketing managers, sales managers, customer service representatives, and analysts.

A January 2012 study showed that cloud computing is a huge generator of new jobs and will continue to be a growth area. Employee growth at the cloud services companies that were studied was 5 times that of the high-tech services industry. The report concluded that companies selling cloud-based services could create as many as 427,000 jobs in the U.S. and overseas in the next 5 years.  Eleven companies added 80,000 in the U.S. in 2010 alone. Venture capital investments in cloud computing could add another 213,000,

According to Wanted Analytics, the most in-demand cloud related skills include:

  1. Oracle Java
  2. Linux
  3. Structured Query Language (SQL)
  4. UNIX
  5. Software as a Service (SaaS)
  6. Python Extensible Programming Language
  7. Practical Extraction and Reporting Language (Perl)
  8. Extensible Markup Language (XML)
  9. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
  10. JavaScript (JS)

Many employers also require certifications. The most commonly requested certifications include:

  1. Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
  2. Project Management Professional (PMP)
  3. Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE)
  4. Cisco Network Associate (CCNA)
  5. VMWare Certified Professional (VCP)
  6. Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)
  7. Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP)
  8. Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP)
  9. Information Security Penetration Testing Professional (ISP)
  10. Cisco CCIE Voice (CCIE)

I might also add these technical skills are just the beginning. The ability to apply the skills and knowledge is what counts. That requires the ability to communicate and collaborate, to deal with ambiguity, to adapt, to manage projects, to understand process (not just systems.

May 16, 2012 | 0 comments | View Post

What Should MBA (and other college) Graduates Expect From Their Degrees?

Nearly 7 years ago, I was asked the following question by BusinessWeek Online reporter Francesca Di Meglio: “What advice do you have for those who are undecided about getting an MBA?” The column was posted on Business Week Online (May 23, 2005.)

Despite the passing of time and The Great Recession interrupting and derailing many career paths, my advice to college students and young adults would remain much the same.

Below is an excerpt of the interview with a link to the full column at the bottom of the post.

Graduation Career Choices - MBA?Ira Wolfe is founder of Success Performance Solutions, a 10-year-old consulting firm in Lancaster, Pa., that offers career and pre-employment testing. At 44, after realizing that dentistry was not for him, he dabbled in consulting and discovered self-assessment tests. He soon decided that his life’s work would be to help others discover their passion. (I would note that my business is really helping employers hire people who fit the job and company culture. That purpose, of course, requires understanding what each employee values and if and how the company can meet his need. Without meeting the need, low engagement, low productivity, and high turnover generally results.

Q: What advice do you have for those who are undecided about getting an MBA?

The first question I would ask is, “What do you hope the MBA will do for you?” It’s certainly a requirement just to get your foot in the door for some jobs, but many people go after degrees without really knowing why they decided to pursue education in the first place.

Q: What should MBA students do to prepare for the job search?

A: You should think through your career path. Getting an MBA doesn’t necessarily guarantee success in a knowledge-based economy. [Students] need to look at the MBA as a way for improving their knowledge base and translating that into tangible skills.  Walk through some questions: What do you want to achieve? What are your expectations? What is it about that MBA that will allow you to be unique? How will this job make you a better employee and person?

Q: Are self-assessment tests a necessity?

A: Absolutely, they are. Intellectually, many people understand what they want but aren’t sure about the emotional factors — is this going to be a satisfying career? We help people realize whether they want to work in a large or small company, the industries that interest them, how well they will fit into different organizations.

These self-assessments look at their skills but also their communication style, ability to be a team player, preferences on company size, and the kinds of organization they would like to manage. You can be an MBA working at a small family-owned business and feel exhilarated or you can be CEO of a major corporation and be very unhappy. It depends on the person.

Read the full interview on BusinessWeek Online.

Searching for the Right Career? Visit the SPS Career Test Center.

Apr 15, 2012 | 0 comments | View Post

Why Employers Can’t Take Chances on Low Skill Employees

You’ve read it before.  The future of work is vastly different than the past. And the skills required to perform the jobs of the future are night-and-day when compared to the skills of many workers.  For many companies and employees, that future is today.

A recent story on NPR highlighted this dramatic shift in job skills and did one of the best jobs at describing the differences.

The subject of the story was Standard Motor Products, a three-generation family business that makes replacement parts for car engines. A few decades ago, a lot of his workers had no high school degree. Some couldn’t read. But they were paid well and many enjoyed a comfortable living wage, maybe even middle class lifestyle.

That was then. This is now.  In today’s factory, workers don’t just have to know how to read. They need advanced technical skills, including critical thinking skills.

The article (and podcast) describes the perfect model of the new factory worker. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of metals and microscopes, gauges and plugs. He works on the team that makes parts or assembles machines that which require precision engineering. In the past, the worker only needed to know how to use a hammer and screwdriver.  Today, manufacturing is becoming a high-tech, high-precision business. Today’s it’s all about finesses. The article even suggests that “mow it’s all finesse” could be the motto of American manufacturing today.

Manufacturing has advanced so much that even a college degree and some computer skills isn’t enough to get hired.  Knowledge of the machine’s computer language is a basic requirement. Learning the language just takes time but what about the ability to picture dozens of moving parts in your head. How many workers have that ability? And if they don’t how would you ever train it?

For employers like Standard Motor Products, they can’t afford to take a chance on workers who don’t have the skill. 90-day probation periods just don’t cut it anymore in a skilled, lean workplace. One mistake can be catastrophic, when the business is not dealing with feet and inches but microns. One micron is four-hundred-thousandths of an inch. A human hair, for example, is 70 microns thick. At Standard, they cannot be off by one-tenth the thickness of a hair.

“A 7- or 8-micron wrong adjustment in this machine cost us a $25,000 workhead spindle,” one Standard employee said. “Two seconds, we could lose $25,000.”

Standard still employees lesser skilled workers, but their days are numbered.  These workers have a high school diploma, but no further education. They work on a simple machine that seals the cap of a fuel injector onto the body. All she does is insert two parts and push a button. It requires no discretion, no judgment. There’s only one way to run it: the right way.  Unfortunately it won’t be long until the simple job is automated or outsourced too.  When? As soon as the cost of her wages and benefits – or mistakes – exceeds the cost of purchasing and implementing robotics. Of course, a drop in the cost of robotics could also doom the low-skill worker. Talk about being caught between the rock and the hard place!

The solution is more training and education. But “the gap between the skilled and the unskilled is so vast that often the only way to make the leap is by leaving work and getting some education. And that’s just not financially feasible for a lot of Americans.”

Read more at The Transformation Of American Factory Jobs, In One Company

Feb 28, 2012 | 0 comments | View Post

New Job Era Arrives

I’m pleased and honored to share this post from my colleague, friend, and author Edward E. Gordon.  You can read more about Ed below.

The continuing U.S. unemployment crisis has left many workers believing there is no tomorrow. They have good reason. Since mid-2008, six million jobs have vanished.

But oddly enough the nation’s gross domestic product almost doubled to over $15 trillion during the last 10 years. This seems impossible when almost 30 million workers are now unemployed, underemployed, or have given up looking for employment.

Then how is it that with so many workers seeking jobs, 5 million U.S. jobs remain unfilled?  Why can’t businesses fill them with the legions of unemployed Americans? Here are ta few facts driving a new job era.

U.S. productivity is increasing. In manufacturing and most other business sectors it’s not just advanced machines. It’s increasingly evident that many new advanced technologies are digitizing the whole economy.

Past history shows that today’s surge in productivity will create tomorrow’s jobs and raise living standards. New jobs will come from rising efficiencies in production and innovative technologies spawning new products and services throughout the entire economy.

The flip side to these breakthroughs is that today’s and tomorrow’s jobs require advanced technical skill levels. A workplace may need fewer people, but they must be better educated and able to work with advanced computer systems. This has become the new normal for employment whether it is in an office, production facility, hospital, law firm or service business.

These digitized jobs present a new problem. The consensus among employers is that people need to be reskilled for the new workplace. The urgent need to create more skilled workers is now a central political and economic concern in communities across America.

A new U.S. job era has arrived. The availability of better-educated talent with up-to-date career skills now largely determines where businesses will locate in the United States or anywhere in the world. Those communities that break down the structural barriers between businesses, education and community groups and collaborate to renew their talent creation and economic systems will attract new businesses and retain current ones. Those that don’t will wither and die.

I have coined the term, Regional Talent Innovation Networks (RETAINs) for such collaborative community ventures that are forming across the United States. (See my earlier blog, “Jobs-Jobs-Jobs” for more information on RETAINs.) They are built upon deeply held American values.

In this election year people are yearning for leadership that will produce solid employment growth. The RETAIN movement needs to be recognized and embraced as a viable way of instituting the  long-term restructuring needed to stimulate employment in this new job era.

About guest blogger Edward Gordon

Edward E. Gordon is a leader with vision.  He is President of Imperial Consulting Corporation in Chicago and Palm Desert, California. Gordon is a recognized international expert on talent, training, careers, and education related to business and economic development. Ed Gordon is the author or co-author of 17 books including Winning the Global Talent Showdown, The 2010 Meltdown, Skill Wars, FutureWork, Closing the Literacy Gap in American Business, Opportunities in Training and Development Careers, Literacy in America, The Tutoring Revolution, Peer Tutoring: A Teacher’s Resource Guide and Tutor Quest.

Feb 08, 2012 | 2 comments | View Post

From Dead End Jobs to Cash-Rich Careers

Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Is there anyone not talking about jobs these days?  From politicians to economists, Main Street to Wall Street, creating jobs is THE hot topic. And no discussion of job creation is complete without the mention of shortages of skilled workers. 

Obsolete job - telegraph editor

Well, over the past week weeks, I’ve been bookmarking articles and blogs about careers to avoid, obsolete jobs, and the best jobs to pursue whether you’re an unemployed worker, disengaged employee, or recent graduate or student seeking a good paying career with a future.

 

 

Stopping The ‘Brain Drain’ of the U.S. Economy

This article comes with a twist. The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear “brain drain” is the loss of our best talent to foreign countries.  For most of the 80s and 90s, the U.S. was the world’s magnet for the best and the brightest.  But then a funny thing happened. The economies of India and China flourished and the U.S. economy slowed.  Indian and Chinese talent now had more options and many headed home.

Today, the U.S. might be faced with a domestic brain drain. Nearly half of the graduates at some Ivy League schools pursue careers in consulting and finance.  Financially that is rewarding for the graduates. But is this career path siphoning off the best talent from other careers short on talent but long on growth (health care for example). 

Read more about the 2012 version of the brain drain.

 

Best jobs of the future

24/7 Wall St. and The Guardian  both published stories about the best jobs of the future. These jobs will grow the most in the next decade and have median incomes well above the national average. Almost without exception, these occupations will be in highest demand because of changes in the nation’s (and most developed country) populations and in the way businesses operate,

Read more about the 1. Best Paying Jobs and 2. Jobs of the Future

I also found an article highlighting the Best-Paying Jobs for Women. Interesting that a search on Google did not produce a single result featuring the best paying jobs for men!

Read more about the Best-Paying Jobs for Women.

 

Avoid These Jobs

If jobs like lector, copy boy, bowling pin setter, bone crusher, or telegraph editor were high on your list of dream jobs,  STOP and read more about:

1. 15 Careers to Avoid and 2. Obsolete Jobs

Feb 06, 2012 | 0 comments | View Post

Why We Need to Hire Fewer and Fewer People

With an election year approaching and unemployment still high, lots of lip service and media ink are being wasted on ways to fix the jobless recovery. What a crock of $#!%.

While it is unquestionably heart-breaking to see good, hard-working, well-intentioned people become victims of corporate greed and negligent governance, much of the responsibility for getting a job (and keeping it) should fall on the shoulders of the individual and that includes individual executives and business owners.

I’m not saying that government and communities shouldn’t facilitate and support job creating programs. But government shouldn’t be expected to provide the jobs – nor should they create and fund jobs that require low skills or mediocre performance. That’s a recipe for failure – creating jobs that don’t create value nor are competitive in a global economy.

Ultimately successful companies have realized that we need to hire fewer and fewer people at a higher and higher level. That is one reason why our economy is growing but unemployment remains high.

David Belden, in his Professional Outsider Blog, recommends three books are Daniel Pink’s Drive, Clay Shirky’s Cognitive Surplus, and Seth Godin’s Linchpin to support this argument. I wholeheartedly agree with his choices.  I’ve been a fan of Pink and Godin for years.  And Shirkey’s message is one that I’ve been writing and speaking about for over a decade.

Daniel Pink describes what’s happening. We’re witnessing the transition from Information Worker to Conceptual Worker. A critical lesson he offers for business as well as our bureaucrats is that we can’t keep throwing more and more mediocre workers at every challenge and expecting good results.  (Isn’t that the street definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result?)

I’d like to add a fourth book to the list by Ed Gordon, who has written over a dozen books on global workforce trends.  I particularly like Winning the Global Talent Showdown, in which he describes how our society has moved from the agricultural era to cyber-mental era.  The shift doesn’t only change the service and products that what we produce as a nation but it rewrites the definition of work.

Belden sums up the resulting jobless recovery conundrum nicely.

The fact is that production no longer requires significant numbers of no- or low-skilled worker. In good times, when money is flush, we tend to simply throw more and more people into the fray, hoping that somehow they will finally get the job done. No longer, says Daniel Pink. What we require are conceptual workers who can envision the larger issues, and devise (and implement) a plan to address them holistically. Pink encourages business owners to ask, “How do I motivate my employees to use their creative problem-solving skills to help this organization?”

One solution Pink recommends is what he calls ROWE – Results Only Work Environment.  How cool is that?  A workplace where individuals are responsible and accountable for their actions, decisions, and ultimately their results. Isn’t that the dream of every executive and business owner?

The problem is that ROWE isn’t just a mandate for human resources to recruit, select, and retain a particular type of employee. ROWE requires leadership to look at managing people and organizations differently.  To work effectively, managers and executives must shift gears and begin to reward thinking and outcomes, not compliance and activity. Carrots and sticks might work for industrial age and non-thinking jobs, but hiring and recruiting Conceptual Workers in the Cyber-Mental Age requires so much more.

Therefore the solution for the jobless recovery lies not with government subsidizing new jobs but with business management, including Congress, the Executive Office, and all the other bureaucrats, taking responsibility and accountability for their own results (not just their actions.) Creating low-skill jobs that only serve to reduce unemployment stats and get re-elected is throwing money down the rabbit hole – a short term fix with long term negative consequences. 

In other words, employers – stop looking for bailouts and subsidies.  Learn to lead and manage in today’s world. Much of what worked in the past is a blueprint for failure in the future.  Take responsibility for creating and implementing a strategy that differentiates your business and creates value for your customers. For jobseekers and employees – stop looking for just a paycheck. Take responsibility for your career.  Learn new skills. Keep learning.

Finally, get comfortable with change.  One thing is for sure – constant change isn’t going away.

Dec 10, 2011 | 2 comments | View Post

Personal Assistants: No Longer Just Go-fers

Gone are the days when brewing coffee, picking up laundry, and typing memos defined the perfect personal assistant. In order to get ahead in the field of personal assistance today, a individual pursuing a career as a personal assistant  should consider acquiring an administrative assistant degree, whether Bachelor’s or Associate’s. The ambitious personal assistant may even take things one step further by seeking certification, which serves to take the place of or add to work experience on a resume – something incredibly valuable in a field where reputation is everything. Considering personal assistants are most likely to be hired by company executives, maintenance of a pristine image akin to what gains respect and admiration in the business world is essential.

From the angle of a more personal set of skills, personal assistants should be adept communicators. Your job will revolve around representing your client in the most professional manner possible. This may include keeping up with correspondence in the form of letters, emails, phone calls and, by today’s standard, even Facebook updates. Strong multi-tasking and proactive management skills make a personal assistant that much more valuable as an employee.

But these skills prove most valuable when applied to more recent evolutions of the role of personal assistants. Assistants that find themselves working for celebrities or public figures will devote a large chunk of their time managing and developing a website along with social media for their client. After all, using the example of everyday social media, not every single tweet or Facebook update from a celebrity is personally typed and submitted by the celebrity themselves. For this reason, personal assistants more than ever fill similar roles to public relations professionals, constantly on-message and consistent with handling of public affairs.

You may also find that, depending on the taste and requirements of clients, your face-to-face interactions may be more infrequent than they’ve previously been. The digital age has changed the face of the personal assistant role, evolving it from the position of a go-getting girl Friday to the role of a technically proficient and well-spoken communicator familiar with contemporary business trends and decorum.

As most fields of study change bit by bit with the transition to a web-dominated, digital golden age, personal assistants have evolved their roles to be more involved, demanding respect and notoriety as representatives of celebrities and top corporate executives. The aspiring personal assistant should shed those images of pseudo-slaves and envision the organized, business-savvy and passionate worker that embodies the personal assistant of today.

Submitted by Guest Blogger Anne Berlow. Anne is a content specialist at Capterra, a business software industry leader.

Oct 22, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post

Speaking of jobs: The Coming Jobs War

And speaking of jobs… on the same day that Jobs died, I received an invitation to preview a new book, The Coming Jobs War.  This isn’t a book about the battle to replace Steve Jobs but the struggle to create jobs.  The author is Jim Clifton, chairman and CEO of Gallup.  Clifton confirmed a fact that many of us know but “apparently few leaders” do – that “small and medium-sized American companies fund the great American way….when small and medium-sized American businesses have no growth, there is no money to send to Washington…”

Clifton describes the coming jobs war as a world war and the single most serious leadership threat for the next 30 years.  He passionately believes that for the next few decades, the world will not be led by U.S. political or military force but by the country that creates the most jobs.and quality GDP growth.  The highest levels of leadership therefore require a mastery of a new skill: job creation.

America’s most pressing current problem, according to Gallup, is a lack of good jobs. America will go broke if jobs can’t be found.  Because without a job, people don’t spend, businesses don’t start or grow, and GDP falls.

Jobs are the heart and soul of a nation. Jobs sustain everyone.   

Most of the attention for job creation features the largest companies.  The problem is that there are only about 1,000 companies with more than 10,000 employees. Despite the attention given to these largest companies, they employ just slightly more than 25 percent of all non-public workers.

In comparison, the Census Bureau reports that as of 2007, there were about 6 million businesses in the United States with at least one employer.  Businesses with 500 or fewer employees represent more than 99% of these 6 million. There are slightly more than 88,000 companies with 100 to 500 employees and about 18,000 with 500 to 10,000 workers. Those businesses with less than 100 employers represent nearly 35 percent of all workers and contribute as much payroll as does the largest employers (approximately 30 percent). When you include businesses with up to 499 employees, the number of employed workers swells to 50 percent who earn over 43 percent of total payroll.

If small business is the engine of job creation, then the U.S. has a real problem. Because  the drop in the rate of new business creation since 2007 is 23 percent,  resulting in as many as 1.8 million fewer jobs. In addition the number of employees per new business has been falling, from eight in the 1990s to fewer than six in recent years.

Oct 12, 2011 | 1 comment | View Post

What’s more troubling: The loss of jobs or the loss of Jobs?

Depending on your frame of reference, asking the question “can the U.S. survive without Jobs?” will elicit a variety of responses.  Responses will inevitably be influenced by political affiliation but my question is much broader than that. Because jobs refer to both sluggish job creation and the tragic loss of Steve Jobs.

Both circumstances pose an ominous threat to our role as leader of the free world. Solutions to replace the innovative genius of Jobs and jump start sustainable job creation will remain elusive for some time to come.  

Let me start with Steve Jobs.  Jobs changed our lives forever, much like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Walt Disney. Jobs didn’t invent the personal computer, the mouse, or the graphical user interface (GUI). What he did brilliantly, according to a column in the Washington Times, was to bring the inventions of others together in beautifully designed packages, then to show us that we’d wanted them desperately all along.

While Jobs like Edison, Ford, or Disney  can’t claim to be the father or the originator of the industry they are in, they have a claim on how they changed their respective industries forever.

America is now desperately seeking the next American visionary. By definition, it’s someone on the cusp of an entirely new industry with an as-yet unrealized potential to change the culture.  Like Jobs, the next innovative genius will have a  ”disruptive” quality, believing that constant change is the only way to stay out in front. Like Jobs and his predecessors, the next visionary will create a  new market, lead the market, and let companies follow behind. Who is out there among us that we currently see as the idealist or crackpot who will ultimately breakthrough and radically change the way people live.

Regrettably the landscape in which Edison, Ford, Disney, and Jobs turned their vision into reality has turned sour.  All these men started small working against all odds, often alone. Entrepreneurship and small business in their day was not only supported but encouraged. Government – local, state, and federal – provided incentives to start up a business, not a bureaucratic labyrinth that was all but impossible to navigate.  And if a small business entrepreneur was successful, taxes and other regulations didn’t bleed the entrepreneurial spirit dry. Not only is the U.S.climate not conducive to starting a business and taking risk, we now have competition from rising entrepreneurial juggernauts China and India.

Jobs will be remembered both for the life-changing products he created and for the fact that he was able to sit down, think clearly, and execute his ideas.  Given the current political climate and global economic challenge, we are desperately in need of jobs and Jobs. Unfortunately, you just can’t create a committee and select his replacement and the U.S. landscape is becoming repressive and oppressive for small business, entrepreneurshp and innovation. People like Jobs aren’t looking for a job.  They are not even pursuing a career. What they seek is a world different than nearly all of us can even imagine. And they will go to places where they are free to innovate and transform ideas into reality.

Right now the loss of Jobs and the loss of jobs go hand in hand. Without innovation that sparks new business and entrepreneurship that creates jobs, unemployment will remain high, GDP will languish, and our economy will be sluggish. 

Oct 09, 2011 | 1 comment | View Post

Want a Job? 5 Steps to Personal Branding

Social Media Summit 2011

WATCH THIS VIDEO about the changing world of job search! Click on the image to start.

No matter what the season or economic stimulus, the unemployed and underemployed worker is struggling to find work.  That’s grim news for many people looking for work or a change in careers, especially those jobseekers pitching themselves to employers the same way 15 million other jobseekers are doing it.

Despite these ominous odds, employers are hiring. They are just much more diligent and particular about whom they put on their payroll.  That means jobseekers must be equally diligent and resourceful. Therefore it is critical that a candidate present him- or herself in the best light possible, in as many ways as possible, to as many prospective employers as possible.  In other words, if you want that next job, it’s time to brand yourself.

Brand yourself?  What, exactly, does that mean?  Isn’t branding the responsibility of marketing and public relations departments and ad agencies? If that is what you think, it’s time to change your tune…and brand.

For the jobseeker, companies seeking to hire are the customers.  The job market is, in fact, a marketplace.  In this scenario, job seekers are the products.  Branding requires that you package, present and sell yourself in a way that differentiates you from all the other job seekers, just like Apple differentiates itself from Windows and Droid, Pepsi from Coke, Starbucks from Dunkin Donuts. Given the fact that there are so many people looking for so little work, branding yourself must make you the most desirable, valued, “must-have” candidate available. 

Here are 5 must-do steps every serious job seeker must follow to brand himself in a way that his resume and first impression stand out in a positive way.

1. Use Social Media. Social media has become a viable and necessary means to a branding end. Surveys indicate that 80% of all companies use or intend to use social media in their recruiting efforts.  A 2010 ExecuNet Inc. research study found that 90 percent of search-firm recruiters regularly Google candidates. Whether you use Facebook (800 million users worldwide), LinkedIn (120 million users) or any of the other available platforms, social media gives jobseekers the widest audience possible to explain who they are and what they have to offer. 

But just posting your education, experience, honors, and awards isn’t enough anymore, not with millions of people competing for so few jobs. Your resume must become the diamond in the rough that sparkles enough to catch a recruiter’s eye. Branding yourself therefore must begin with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). 

2. SEO. You might be wondering what SEO has to do with job search or recruiting. SEO is what makes your web-based content (your resume and profile) attractive to search engines. If you don’t include the words and phrases that recruiters type in the search box, your resume won’t show up on their list.  When developing your online profile, you must incorporate keywords and phrases that bridge the gap between you and those that you hope find you. Internet marketing is driven by content – text, audio, and video, relevance, and authenticity. In today’s world, everyone must be a marketer and SEO is the language the Internet speaks.

3. Research your competition.  Do a search of resumes on the job boards and social networking sites for the jobs you want to apply to.  Which resumes come up first?  Do a search of a company profile and look for connections who might be new hires? What information did they include in their LinkedIn profile that might have helped them get hired? How did they describe their strengths and experience? What keywords did they use?  How does your resume – your brand – compare to your competition? But avoid the temptation to copy. And definitely don’t over-hype yourself. Use your research to learn what works and then re-write your resume and profile in a way that makes you stand out.  If the content you use doesn’t appear authentic and doesn’t match up with how recruiters search, you will be ignored, regardless of your credentials. 

4. Consistency. Once you have settled on your keywords, work them into your content across all of your social media platforms. Consider the images you use too. Pictures tell a thousand words. Remember, you are building your brand and consistency is critical. What you post on your LinkedIn page the message should be the same as it is on your Facebook page or Twitter feed.  Employers want to know that the person you purport to be is the person you are.  If your LinkedIn page shows you to be a highly skilled, educated worker but your Facebook page displays images of drinking, drugs, or risqué behavior, you may damage your brand.   Your online reputation is a measure of your integrity, your credibility, your values.  Failing to protect your personal brand will dilute your credibility and may be the trigger that causes the recruiter to put your resume on the maybe or do not call list.

5. What goes on the Internet stays on the Internet. Almost everything you or anyone else posts about you on the internet is accessible by someone. Put another way, assume that anything you post online is public and will live in cyberspace forever.  Much like the genie who escapes from the bottle, whatever makes it onto the world-wide-web is no longer within your control. 

Your brand. It’s the key to your next job.  Define it. Nurture it.  Protect it.  

More Job Search and Recruiting Tips.

Watch This Video Recorded at the Harrisburg University 2011 Social Media Summit.

 

Social media, recruiting, and job search

Click on the image to view the video.

 

 

Oct 05, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post
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