End The Agony–Let The Job Offers Come To You

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End The Agony–Let The Job Offers Come To You Posted: 16 Jun 2011 05:54 AM PDT You've called all your distant relatives to see if they know anybody who might be Somebody who can get you job. You've begged your friends and sometimes even acquaintances to give you recommendations on LinkedIn. You keep hitting the refresh button on your email to see if the hiring manager bothered to get back to you, but there's still nothing. Wouldn't it be great if you were the one saying, "Don't call me, I'll call you"? When I left my government job, I was surprised at the number of people who came out of the woodwork to offer me a job–even though I wasn't looking for one.  In fact, I started to feel a little self-conscious about it.  I mean, I like to think I'm good at what I do, but I don't know about that good. So what was going on? At the time I left my job, I was working for one of the most respected men in government science. And apparently, he'd been saying nice things about me. Until that moment, I hadn't truly appreciated the power of association.  The job offers weren't just about hiring a good employee.  They were about capturing a piece of the reputation I represented. Of course, this is great news if you work for an influential boss and want to keep working in the same industry. But what if you don't?  Is there any way to garner a flood of offers, even when you're changing careers and lack experience? I think so. I'll warn you, my idea is unconventional. But if you'd like to stop playing the demoralizing game of job hunt roulette, there is another alternative. Is good grooming killing your chances? Sometimes you find insights on career change in the strangest places. I was reading a book on advertising which included an example taken from an old ad for men's clothing: Of course, clothes don't make the man.  But you know yourself how helpful they are in getting him a hearing. It is likely that Tom Edison and Charlie Schwab could wear any kind of clothes and not suffer particular loss of prestige if the suit happened to be shabby or a misfit. But most of us have to be a bit more careful.  [W]e don't feel right ourselves unless we have the consciousness of being well-groomed. Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? But this kind of thinking is exactly what I think is wrong with most career and job advice. It rests on the idea that what you need is more grooming: your resume, your interview skills, your contacts list, not to mention your suit. It's an industry of appearances, designed to make you look better than you are.  What could be more uncomfortable and disheartening than that? Frankly, I'd rather learn how to become the Charlie Schwab of my industry.  I'd like to work on the assumption that you, that all of us, should be learning how to be better than we are, rather than how to hide our faults.  After all,  that's what personal and professional growth is all about. I can already hear the complaints.  Not everyone can be Charlie Schwab, Jen.  Get real! It's true that not everyone can be a household name both inside and outside their industry, as Schwab was and still is.  But for every Schwab, there are dozens or more leaders in the financial industry that you and I have never heard of.  The people we think of as rock stars in our business are usually unknown to those outside our circle. You actually don't have to be a Schwab to impress the pants off most employers. What you need is to demonstrate to your colleagues that you're a thought leader in the field.  Or in today's modern parlance, you need a strong personal brand. Unfortunately, all that grooming usually has the opposite effect.  Instead of forming you into a thought leader, you come across as stiff and stilted, someone who doesn't have any real thoughts of their own. You can do better than that.  It's time to be your vibrant, passionate self … long before you're ever invited for that interview. A short-cut to the influence you deserve For one thing, interviews aren't all they're cracked up to be. According to this article, if you're sitting in that interview due to some slick networking or a well-groomed resume, your chances aren't as good as you think. Because it's not a level playing field.  A few of the interviewees didn't even need a resume to walk in that room.  They are the almost-Schwabs of your industry.  And you?  You're just filler. The article makes it sound like there's only one way to get yourself a personal brand: spend decades working for a big, admired company and work hard to ensure their brand rubs off on you. That's certainly one way, but it's not the only way. Want an alternative?  Are you sitting down? The answer is blogging.  I don't mean straight-up, start from scratch and market yourself an audience blogging.  I mean getting your writing on the pages of other big-name, branded bloggers who already have a waiting audience.  It's called guest blogging. It's really the best of all worlds. All you have to do is write a killer, say 1000 word article on how to solve a tenacious problem in your industry.  Then get a popular blogger to publish it, an act that adds a "halo effect" because another well-respected person has now vouched for your ideas. Do that over and over again, and before you know it, you won't need a resume either.  Everyone in your industry will already know who you are and what you stand for. You can spend decades working for a big-name company, trying to out-work your colleagues night after night, or you can spend a few months writing. Now, in order for this to work, I am making a few assumptions:  you've done your research, you're brimming with good ideas, and you're reasonably articulate.  Notice I didn't say anything about direct work experience or being the next Hemingway.  That doesn't hurt, but it's not a pre-req. Oh, and there's one more thing.  You need to understand the unwritten rules of guest blogging. Stop looking, start leading In general I try not to get misty-eyed about the benefits of social media and personal branding.  It's one tool among many, and the good old-fashioned ways of connecting still work just fine. But for spreading your ideas and establishing yourself as a thought-leader?  The possibilities are breathtaking. The problem is, much of the advice on the internet is intent on you either starting your own blog or getting hired to blog for someone else.  But I'm not recommending either of these strategies, because blogging for yourself is an insane time sink and blogging for hire largely eliminates the halo effect you're shooting for. Worse is the advice to write and self-publish a book, as if a spot in the Kindle library will bring you instant name recognition.  Good luck with that! In point of fact, I can point you to only one resource that teaches you everything you need to know about how to create significant influence where others can find it. Fortunately, one good resource is all you need. My blogging friends have all heard about Jon Morrow's guest blogging course, because it's a course I took myself sometime last year when I got frustrated with the snail's pace growth of my blog after nearly 8 months of flailing around. I really admire Jon's writing, which was the push I needed to give his course a try.  It was, oddly enough, my very first investment in myself and my blog.  Up until that point, I'd thought I could teach myself everything.  How much easier everything became with a real, live mentor! The results were far beyond even my own expectations.  I've published posts on some of the most popular blogs on the internet and can call myself friends, or at the least collegial, with some extremely influential people. I don't say that to brag.  You see, earning influence isn't just about networking, though that's part of it. It's learning how to conduct meaningful espionage on your industry to carve out a safe haven for your budding ideas.  It's about creating a memorable framework so those ideas have legs.  And it's getting deep into the psychology of your audience, so you can speak directly to their motivations and fears. I don't mean to suggest it's easy.  That's why there's a course to show you the ropes.   But I think guest blogging might be the secret job seeking strategy of the decade. Give it a try.  At worst, it's a novel and fun way to hone your communication skills, which will come in handy when crafting your resume and interview responses. At best?  You'll never go looking for work again. Post By Dr Jennifer Gresham .. http://everydaybright.com/who-is-jen

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