The Fukushima 50

As we approach the one year anniversary of the 4th strongest earthquake in recorded history, I am hearing stories about the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. More specifically, the events following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and related series of nuclear accidents last March 2011. In one story, the “Fukushima 50″ was mentioned in passing.  This was a small group of volunteers who stayed behind to do what they could to bring the crisis under control. Actually there were 200 volunteers who worked in shifts of 50 people.  These brave, self-sacrificing people, who largely remained unknown, sparked a flame of curiosity in me, so I did a little research.

The daughter of one of these men stated, ”I heard that he volunteered even though he will be retiring in just half a year and I my eyes are filling up with tears…. At home, he doesn’t seem like someone who could handle big jobs…but today, I was really proud of him. And I pray for his safe return.”

These were highly experienced technicians who understood how the plant worked. They could troubleshoot and resolve a wide range of problems. It was risky, not only for them, but for the future of the power plant. If this small group of highly experienced workers were to die as a result of exposure, the best people for solving the myriad problems facing this nuke would be gone. Consequences would be dire and long-lasting.

Sometimes compared to the fire fighters who rushed into the World Trade Center on 9/11, the Fukushima 50 were lionized by the worldwide press. March 11 (the day of the earthquake and ensuing disaster) is referred to as 3/11 in Japan. These men worked with little food or sleep for days on end to restore the plant to a stable condition and save their country and their loved ones. Most of them had no idea if they had family to go home to or if they’d been washed away by the tsunami. However, they continued to work on, around the clock.

Astonishingly, these men are now caught in terrible predicament, somewhat like the veterans who returned from the Vietnam War. Heroes who were treated badly by those who owed them so much. According to a recent article in Newsweek:

As the nation prepares for the first anniversary of the tsunami, the Japanese are preoccupied with radiation fears, the anti-nuclear debate, and bashing the operator of the Fukushima plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), for its response to the crisis. The workers who risked their lives remain faceless and nameless. Increasingly, they are also voiceless, because they fear being associated with the now-vilified power company if they speak about what went on in the plant. Six workers spoke to Newsweek on the condition that their real names not be used so they could provide a rare firsthand account of the fear and courage of these men…

As is the case with so many stories about heroes, the truth is not so glorious. Some men responded out of a sense of duty, some out of fear of shame, some were pressured or even tricked and others just needed the money. As time went by, more people showed up beyond the initial 200. These men were exposed to dangerous amounts of radiation and are still waiting for the results of the tests run on them to determine how badly they were damaged.

Once the imminent meltdown was controlled, the world lost interest but the clean-up was difficult and protracted. Today, these heroes live in fear. Fear that they will be vilified by their fellow countrymen and fear that their lives will be cut short by cancer, if they live long enough to develop it. In the Chernobyl disaster, some workers died within a matter of hours. In Japan, we do not know the extent to which these workers were exposed.

In closing, I will relate a few comments from an American worker at the Fukushima plant who was within minutes of getting off work when the earthquake hit. He worked on the turbine deck, which I can relate to. Last year, I was on the turbine deck at the Ginna Nuclear Power Plant in Rochester, NY picking up some extra money. He was the first person to feel the earthquake among his co-workers. The rest did not notice it at first but the earthquake increased in intensity and continued to rumble about 6 minutes. The spinning blades inside the turbines started to give off a “demonic scream” as they lightly touched the inside of the turbine and became increasingly deformed. A turbine deck is an enormous open room so that anything that falls, falls from a great distance. It is one of the worst places to be in an earthquake. The lights went out and they were trapped in total darkness with objects crashing around them.

On LinkedIn this week, I have been involved in a discussion on a crisis of a different sort.  Companies are using Facebook to size up potential candidates, but they are going beyond what they can get from a casual Google search. There are horror stories from MSN about government agencies, colleges and even employers who are insisting that prospective employees or students give them their Facebook password before making the offer. They are snooping into your private life, as chronicled on Facebook, to see if they want your kind around. I had one MIS professor tell me that companies can get into your Facebook account without your password.  ”Even a so-so MIS or Computer Science undergrad can hack in in 30 minutes.”

There is an Onion News Network video which pokes fun at this, but what they have to say is disturbingly on target.

Facebook has actually become a treasure trove of information about you when it falls into the hands of a prospective employer. Forbes has carried a couple of articles on employers using Facebook to size you up as a good worker. Supposedly, they have moved beyond just checking for drug references or complaints about your boss. They can tell if you are going to fit in and how hard you are likely to work.

The living victims of the Fukushima disaster are dealing with their crisis by keeping quiet. They are staying as invisible as possible. In your case, as a job seeker, you can not afford to do that. This is not the first time I have alerted people that prospective employers are looking at their Facebook accounts. The reaction is almost always hostile with most people dismissing the warning as rubbish, but the evidence is mounting. The workers on the Fukushima turbine deck could not afford to simply hunker down. To survive, they had to take action. They were guided out by a dim sliver of light coming from under the door which took them out of the cavernous room. Doing nothing is not the answer. You must educate yourself about what employers are looking for when they look at your social media accounts and fill your accounts with the right sort of information.

For the Fukushima 50 interview, I refer you to the Daily Beast: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/03/04/heroes-of-japan-s-nuclear-disaster-all-but-forgotten.html

Good Luck and Godspeed.

James Snider
Business Development Director

Accelerant Marketing Alliance, LLC

jsnider@accelerantmktg.com

817 203 4944

Pinning for a job on Pinterest

Perhaps you have been hearing a lot about Pinterest recently. It has become the fastest growing social media site ever. It grew to 10 million users in just 9 months and is currently enjoying hockey stick growth. Marketers have been scratching their heads to figure out how to use it to market products. Pinterst is pretty blunt about not wanting their site to be overrun with “Billy Mays” pitchmen. They encourage sharing and discourage selling. As a result, the selling is very artistic and subtle.

However, your concern is how to use it to enhance your job search. Before I address this, let me tell you a little bit about Pinterest.

It is like Twitter but it is image focused not word focused. You would follow people because you think they will post images/webpages/videos that you will find interesting. Maybe you love pug dogs and you will follow people who will post things about pugs. They will post cute images of pugs and maybe videos, but mostly they will post links to web pages about pugs.  This is a social bookmarking site where you share interesting links with people who follow you. However, keep in mind that this is image based. You will not attract much attention with text about “This is the best site for treating heartworms in pugs.” You will attract much more attention with an image of a pug in a zebra pattern snuggie. A web site without a show stopper image does not make a good post on Pinterest.

Like Facebook, the content stays there and doesn’t scroll off the screen in 20 seconds as it does with Twitter. Pinterest users can sort content into categories. These are called “boards” and when you post content to one of these boards, it is called “pinning”. It is as if you are pinning really great pictures on a bulletin board for your friends to see. If you are like me, you find that cluttered Facebook format to be annoying. You have to scroll down past all the stuff your friends think is interesting to find those few things posted by people who you care about or who really are interesting. With Pinterest, you can go straight to boards with content which interests you. If someone has a board called “Cats” and you are a dog person, you will skip that and go to “Places to Visit” or “Cakes” or “Bucket List” etc.

A great feature of Pinterest is the ability to follow only the  boards that interest you.  There is a general Pinterest section called “Pinners you follow” which is somewhat like Twitter. You can get a quick glimpse at all the newest stuff to be pinned by the people you follow.  If you are following a person who posts something you find objectionable, you can simply unfollow that board on her Pinterest account. You will still see the other stuff she posts without having to see her “Politics” or “Humor” boards. You do not have to “unfriend/unfollow” her completely as you would with Facebook or Twitter.

You will notice that I used female pronouns. That is because most Pinterest users are 18-34 year old upper income women from the American heartland. This did not start out among the techies on the east or west coast. According to TechCrunch:

The Pacific and North East regions contained the most Pinterest users in May, now its strongholds are in the East South Central and West North Central States, such as Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, and Mississippi.

If you have a product or service which could be interesting to this target market, there is some marketing potential for Pinterest. I have a client who imports cookware from Sweden. His biggest issue right now is lack of awareness. People just don’t know about the product so they walk right past it in stores. With his Pinterest account, I pin incredible recipes and images of crazy impressive cake competitions. As I build followers, I can occasionally slip in information about the product….but will keep it light. I am building brand awareness among his target audience; cooking professionals and hobbyists.

As far as job seekers are concerned, I can not see the usage model unless you are in a field where your work can be demonstrated visually. If you are a photographer, interior designer, architect, baker, wedding planner, jewelry designer, graphic artist, etc. you can use Pinterest as a free web site to show samples of your work. It is a alternative to using a free, basic site like Weebly.com but it does not give you the same option to include a paragraph describing your work. Pinterest is fast to assemble and very visually rich. It will give the viewer a concentrated look at your work. If you have a lot of good stuff, you will blow them away.

If you are in marketing or communications, you need to be aware of this platform. You should create an account and give it a test run. You are going to look pretty bush league if you can not talk intelligently about this social media platform. Smart people are predicting that this will replace Facebook and will have a major impact on the Internet.

If you need an invitation to join Pinterest, drop me an email.

Good Luck and Godspeed.

James Snider
Business Development Director

Accelerant Marketing Alliance, LLC

jsnider@accelerantmktg.com

817 203 4944

The Blind Chef

Last week, I had the good fortune to be invited by DARS (Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services) to give mock interviews to blind and visually impaired job seekers. As is so often the case with these sorts of ventures, I got more from it than I gave. I was given two job seekers to “interview.”

The first was a lady with several years of customer service experience before she lost her sight. She wanted to return to that field. That was an easy interview. She had the personality for the job and her years of experience were reflected in the answers she gave to the interview questions. If I were in a position to hire a person to do customer service, I would have made an offer on the spot.

The next interview was a bit rough. It was a young man who wanted to be a chef. A blind chef. He wanted to convince me that it was OK to bring him into my profit center (the kitchen) to work around fire, slippery liquids, heavy objects and knives in a crowded, hectic environment. What little I know about a commercial kitchen, I know from talking to my two children; one who is a server and one who manages a restaurant. However, one of my strengths is empathy. Somehow, I was able to morph into a restaurant owner and I was not going to hire this guy. The risks were just too great. What if he got hurt? What if he started a fire? What if he hurt someone else? My mind was going full speed against making this hire.

What transpired over the next 20 minutes was an enormous struggle within me. I asked him a few general questions and he gracefully worked into the conversation that he specialized in taking the usual and putting his own twist on it. I asked for an example. He said, “Chicken Fried Strawberries.” Perhaps he heard the snicker in my voice. I’ve been to the State Fair of Texas, home of Fried Twinkies,  Chicken Fried Bacon and Chicken Fried Butter (I wish I were making this up). I just assumed that this was one more gauche Texas redneck indulgence until he continued. “It is a lot harder to get right than it sounds. If you fry it too long, the strawberry turns into mush. If you don’t fry it long enough, the crust is not crisp.”  That made sense. I know enough about cooking that he had me interested and a little bit impressed. Then he went on to describe the elegant sauce he made to drizzle over it. I was hooked. It sounded incredible.

I turned the conversation back to the reservations I had about hiring a visually impaired person to work in a dangerous environment. He was honest. He could not see if chicken was browned correctly (as an example) but he would ask a prep chef to be his eyes on the rare occasions when he needed them. We talked about the stressful environment of working in a commercial kitchen. He said that he focused so intensely on what he was doing that he blocked out the distractions and was not easily rattled by the stress. He always knew where everything he needed was. He was methodical in where he placed his pans, knives, ingredients, etc. His answers were good but he could not take away my fear of taking a chance on him. There are plenty of chefs out there to hire. Why take a chance on someone who just might not be able to perform the duties?

I let up a little bit on the hostile questioning. We talked about his specialty. He was not really Southwestern or French or (I ran out of specialties). What was his specialty? When he started talking about food, his passion was contagious. I felt my apprehensions starting to melt and a voice in my head started saying, “Give this guy a chance. He sounds like an incredible chef.”

My marketing brain started to run. What a great story for the evening news. “Blind chef creates signature dish that puts struggling restaurant on the map.” He had a nice look and would look great on camera. What an incredible break through this would be for visually impaired people all over North Texas. I had no doubt that this guy could work magic with food.

That’s when the lizard brain kicked in. I started feeling cautious. I could not get over the fact that he could not see where the fire was. He could not see if the prep chef was right behind him. He could not see if he’d spilled the olive oil and it was under his feet or seeping into the flame. He did not have complete use of all his senses which made him a risky addition to the kitchen.

As I wrapped up the interview, I asked the standard, “Do you have any questions?” He went straight to the point. “What would prevent you from hiring me today?” My answer was honest, “I am concerned that your lack of sight might cause you to get hurt or to hurt someone else.” His thoughtful response was an exquisite Touche’. “I managed 250 men on a construction site for several years” (this was back before he lost his sight). “I’ve seen a lot of men with sight, get hurt because they were distracted. Since I lack my sight, when I am in the kitchen, I am the most focused person in the room.”

Interestingly, the day before this mock interview, I’d had a real interview with a major hotel chain who is staffing up 90 marketers in their eCommerce department. My eCommerce experience is a bit limited, but not inconsequential. I am proficient in social media marketing, am certainly a self-starter, have management experience, good sense of humor and people skills. The best thing I brought to the table was a clear understanding of what their customers need when making on-line reservations. I was a road warrior for 10 years and used multiple on-line booking sites, including their’s.

I was required to work through a case study and give a presentation as part of the interview process. I love giving presentations. I really got into the case study, pouring over the numbers, examining their website, Facebook and Twitter sites. I analyzed the sites of their competitors and Google rankings. I had more than enough to say in the 20 minutes they gave me for the presentation. I had a wonderful time and showed them a pretty good time in the process.

The day following my time with the blind job seekers, I received the phone call from the recruiter. “Thanks, but no thanks.” The piece I left out of the description of my interview was the age gap. Everyone I spoke to was late 20s or early 30s. I have a son in college. eCommerce is the domain of the young. It did not matter that I was passionate about the opportunity or the employer. It did not matter that my passion was palpable. The lizard brain would not let them take a chance on me. I did not fit their profile for what an eCommerce person should be. Their careers depend on staffing with the right people. They were not willing to take a chance.

Despite my talent and passion for doing exactly what this employer is looking for, I have a significant barrier. I am like the blind chef. I understand the lizard brain because it was active in me as I talked to him. I know why these “20 somethings” were not willing to extend to me an offer. We become frustrated by this job market, even angry. But I say, have some understanding for those on the other side of the desk.

Winston Churchill said, “Success is the ability to move from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” Some day, someone will give the blind chef a chance and I am sure he will prove himself to be an tremendous asset. As for me, I need to take some of my own advice. I LinkedIn with the most senior person with whom I interviewed. I Googled him and read a great article about him. I dropped him an email to tell him how much I enjoyed the article. I connected to him via Google+. I found 12 people who work at this hotel chain who are involved in eCommerce and are alumni of my two alma maters. Did I mention to you that fellow alumni are very likely to connect with you on LinkedIn? I now have 12 new connections on LinkedIn. This may all amount to nothing but it may end up getting me a really great job.

Keep in mind that there are things that are just going to get in the way. If you have passion for what you do, you will get a job. It may not be the very next job that comes along, but you will get one.

If you ever see Chicken Fried Strawberries on the menu, get them. Send your compliments to the chef. Shake the restaurant manager’s hand and tip your server well. That signature dish will be your sign that a blind chef had the passion to overcome significant barriers and land that job he is dreaming of today.

Good Luck and Godspeed.

James Snider
Business Development Director

Accelerant Marketing Alliance, LLC

jsnider@accelerantmktg.com

817 203 4944

Overcoming the “Field of Dreams” Approach

What follows is an article I wrote for a local business publication.  Most or all of this also applies to you as a job seeker.

If you build it will they come?

Overcoming the “Field of Dreams” approach

Unfortunately the business world is littered with the remnants of many promising companies that failed to recognize the significance of persistant sales.  Despite great products, a small company must persist through the sales process if they are to have any hope of surviving. Far too many entrepreneurs assume that if they built it, customers will come. Most smaller companies aren’t adequately funded and run their bank accounts dry before any significant business comes their way.

Small business owners and executives are usually too busy developing their product or service to give enough attention to reaching decision makers who might buy their wares. They think that simply being visible is going to generate business. This motivates them to develop a web page, create some handout materials and spread the word among people they know. When they realize that no one is seeking them out, the decision is made to increase visibility by going where the key decisions makers are looking for information. They start giving presentations at seminars, writing contributed articles for trade publications, joining trade groups and going to trade shows.

People do not naturally assimilate general information and turn it into an understanding as to how it will benefit them. Customers must be guided to this understanding and then encouraged to make a buying decision. It seems counter intuitive, but intelligent business people can not seem to “connect the dots.” This is why the savvy entrepreneur needs to perfect a pitch that includes features, advantages and benefits.  In other words, draw the picture for the customer and explain how their solution will help them turn a profit. After initial failure to attract adequate attention, these small companies will“idiot proof” their message so it can not be missed.

In the instance where decision makers are reached and interest generated, there is often too little follow up. Business owners wait for the person to contact them. After all, the busy executive said they would follow up and no one wants to appear to be “pushy.” After waiting a long time, the small company will finally contact the prospective customer. If they can not get through after several tries, most will give up.  They assume that the prospect has simply lost interest or was never really interested in the first place.

In reality, closing the deal can be a lengthy process. Even with a truly interested customer, the road to success can be a long one. I’ve developed a list of five common set-backs in the sales process of start-ups and small companies:

“What we got here is a failure to communicate.”

Product developers are excited about their new product or service and assume that the benefits of it are clearly visible. All too often, developers expect that people will imediately see the significance of their product. In reality, customers may need more time just to understand the offering. For this reason, the company message must be clear enough so that the prospect is not required to talk themselves into liking the product. The sales pitch must explain how the product or service will save precious resources; generally time or money.

Assuming that they like you….they really like you…

It is easy to misunderstand the prospect’s level of interest. Being simply “interested” may mean that they are only entertained by the demonstration, concept or presentation. The company representative needs to learn to qualify the interest to prevent wasted effort. Some deals are never going to move forward because the prospect can not see a specific benefit derived from the offering.

One is better than two.

Particularly in partnerships, there is a failure to make “following up” one person’s job. Both the seller and the prospect will return to the office after a trade show or seminar and get back into their routine. Unless “closing the deal” is part of someone’s routine, chances are, nothing new will happen. One person must be assigned responsibility to follow up with the prospect until the deal either closes or falls through and that person must be held accountable regularly. It can not be a team effort or no one will be required to face the team on a weekly basis and explain why they did not follow through.

“It ain’t over ’til it’s over.”

Of course, a major failure is the lack of “persistent sales.” Rarely will the sales person get through the first time. They will have to repeatedly follow up. There is a sticking point which needs to be overcome before the two parties develop a smooth working relationship which generates income. Multiple meetings may be required and additional people may need to be brought into the process. Most or all of these people will need to be satisfied before the deal can be closed. You have to persist beyond this “sticking point” until the deal has enough momentum to close.

“All that is gold does not glitter.”

And finally, there is a temptation to chase the next hot prospect. It is so easy to lose confidence that the deal is ever going to close. When that next great prospect emerges, it is so hard to not chase them. To continue calling a prospect and never getting through or to continue having conference calls were everyone seems to be finding reasons to not close the deal; it just seems like wasted effort. When another promising opportunity emerges, it feels so logical to put all effort into making that new deal happen, only to end up, a few weeks later, at the same point in the sales process.

We have all seen ballgames where a new game plan is required to turn things around. A shuffling of the line-up, so to speak, can re-set the game and cause a team to reemerge with momentum in their favor. Here are a list of game changing solutions that can also give businesses the winning edge

Clarify your sales presentation.

Make sure the benefits of your product or service are crystal clear to the decision maker who is often multi-tasking and isn’t fully attentive. I have noticed that a major benefit of going to a trade show is not so much the ability to excite a handful of prospects. After all, trade shows with booths, shipping, handouts and travel are expensive. Your return on investment can be pretty slim. The real benefit is the opportunity to test market a sales message to a small sample of a target audience. About halfway through any show, sales people become much more effective in selling since they have successfully honed their message with real prospects.

Separate the wheat from the chaff.

I have seen really good sales people turn skeptics into customers. However, it takes extra work and the initial order is usually pretty small. With less effort and better results, they can close the sale with a customer who is truly interested. Hiring a good sales person is not always an option for a small company. The sales role is going to fall on someone. I’d suggest applying Pareto’s Principle (the 80/20 rule) so attention is given to the “vital few” and not to the “trivial many.” So many prospects (80%) are going to consume too much effort for too little result (20%). A small business can not afford to spend scarce resources without stellar results. By sorting out which prospects are serious, wasted effort is avoided. One suggestion I would offer is to simply try to close the deal as quickly as makes sense.  Those uncomfortable with the sales process are generally reluctant to quickly close a deal by simply asking for the sale. Promptly asking for the business at the appropriate time will shorten the sales cycle and quickly weed out uninterested prospects.

Put someone on the hook

This should be pretty obvious. There is little discomfort in shared blame. Make the responsibility for following up and closing the deal, one person’s job and make them report to the group regularly. Having someone on the hook to drive the deal can be uncomfortable but it makes all the difference. Be ready to ask (and have answers for) the tough questions like, “Why have you not reached them?,” or, “What methods should we be using to reach them?” Noone wants to be the bad guy, but when it comes to survival of the company, everyone will need to toughen up or face the consequences.

Make a plan to stick with it

We have all heard, “Plan your work and work your plan.” The same goes with making a plan  for following up with a great prospect. Make a plan on how and even how often you will follow up with a prospect. Decide early on what methods and collateral you will use to gain their attention and build a relationship along the way. Then devise a tracking system and stick with it. Little which is worthwhile happens without a plan. When it comes to your livelihood, planning to succeed should be paramount.

Know When to say “When”

There will be a time when it must be accepted that the deal is never going to “make.” The interest may be there but the funding may be lacking. Or, the prospect may simply be too busy or lack the authority. However, it may be that there is serious intent to buy but the process is lengthy and an occasional reminder will keep things moving forward. Therefore, it is best to plan for a gradual reduction in frequency. Rather than pelting the prospect every day for two weeks then walking away, it is better to contact them two or three times a week for a couple of weeks, then reduce contact to once a week. Eventually, you will be following up once a month until it is determined that the deal is dead. You need to know when to say “when” but don’t say “when” too soon.

I suggest that those in need of sales efficiency get a mentor or form an accountability group with other like minded professionals. Chosen partners can help you hold yourself accountable to persist until a deal is closed. And on the flip side, they should be able to help you point out that your field of dreams may never materialize and it is time to move on.

Good Luck and Godspeed.

James Snider
Business Development Director

Accelerant Marketing Alliance, LLC

jsnider@accelerantmktg.com

817 203 4944

Peanut Butter and Dill Pickles

I was talking to a friend the other day who is having money problems. As a result, he has started bringing his lunch to work. That day, he’d had a peanut butter sandwich. Being a Texas boy, I figured it was a peanut butter and banana sandwich. To my total disbelief, he told me that it was a peanut butter and dill pickle sandwich. He assured me that it was good and that I should try it. So I did. Not bad but not great either. I’m going to stick to peanut butter and banana sandwiches but I did, at least, give it a try.

That started me thinking back to something my sister-in law told me. She and my favorite Aggie brother-in-law expatted to England a few years ago. He works for a British company and they made it worth his while to spend a couple of years in Cambridge. The friends they made at church and in the neighborhood found certain American eccentricities to be marvelous fun. For example, each time a new person visited their house, they just had to see the enormous “American fridge” (refrigerator). The British use refrigerators about the size of a dorm refrigerator.

Not everything they observed at my sister-in-law’s house was typically American. For example, she loves flavored creamer in her coffee.  When she would invite friends over, she would hear them make reference to “American coffee.”  These Brits came to believe that every American drinks coffee with vanilla, hazelnut or caramel macchiato creamer in it.

I’ve come across a number of odd instances during my visits to the UK which show a funny perception of Americans. For example, I went out to dinner one night and ordered a cup of tea. The waiter brought me the water, a tea bag and a timer. He then explained to me how to brew a cup of tea.  I guess they thought that the Boston Tea Party was the end to our drinking tea in the States.

One thing the Brits just can not understand is our love of peanut butter. They can not imagine spreading that “ghastly stuff” on perfectly good bread. When my sister-in-law mentioned that we occasionally put a banana on it, nausea was clearly visible on their faces. Not being at all deterred, she added, “Or sometimes we put jelly on it.” With clear dread registering in their voices, they would ask, “What… sort… of… jelly?” The horrific answer, “Grape” was far beyond their wildest expectations. What sort of creatures are these Americans?

We can not really understand a culture until we have spent some time there.  Some people would be much happier watching a TV show about England or Egypt than to actually experience the country and the culture first hand. The problem is, you just don’t understand it if you have not been there.

I have often said that the problem with a resume is that we are so much more than a two page Word document. This is like seeing the pyramids on TV rather than riding the camel up to them, going inside them, wandering around through the dimly lit walkways, finally making it back out into the daylight and being ripped off by the old guy who just stands at the exit with his hand out like a tour guide (even though he has nothing to do with the pyramids).You can not experience the pyramids on TV. Can you know anything about me from my resume?

This is where platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn can be very helpful. Share a little bit about who you are. Help me to get to know you.

Business Insider had a great article on what the top high-tech companies want to see in your LinkedIn profile. In addition to the usual stuff such as a complete profile, lack of worn-out buzzwords and specific skills they also want to see what you are passionate about. If you are a social media marketer, do you have anything about social media marketing on your LinkedIn profile? Are you reading books about it? Are you going to the Social Media Club in your area? Are you connected to social media experts? Do you belong to the social media LinkedIn groups? Do you update your network with the latest social media news? Does your LinkedIn profile connect to your Twitter account….and do you Tweet social media stuff? Do you have a link to your personal blog….and does that show any passion for your field?

Your resume may get you in the door but your personality is what will get you the job. Show me that before I pick up the phone and call you. Give me a reason to keep your resume instead of deleting it. I really can not understand much about you from a two page overview of your career. Your resume may make you look like an uptight stuffed shirt. Show me a little passion, a good sense of humor, an interesting person and an intelligent person and I will be more inclined to give you the benefit of a doubt.

Good Luck and Godspeed.

 James Snider
Business Development Director

Accelerant Marketing Alliance, LLC

jsnider@accelerantmktg.com

817 203 4944

LinkedIn Changes to Make Now

As I mentioned in my last post, I have a friend who is a networking machine. He is reaching out to every Dallas area recruiter he can find on LinkedIn. Then he meets with them face-to-face. It is paying off for him. He is getting interviews. He also spent considerable time with one of the most knowledgeable experts on LinkedIn, this side of the Rockies. I thought I knew a lot about LinkedIn, but I learned a lot of new stuff in a short amount of time.

The first thing is your name. This is a trick that a lot of people are catching on to. Go to your settings (it is a drop down menu that you access by going to your name in the upper right hand corner). Go down the right side of the screen to “Helpful Links” and select “Edit your name, location & industry.” You are going to want to change your  last name.  You want to make this a branding statement. Don’t just be Frank Torbin. If you are a CPA, change your last name to “Torbin, CPA.” My last name, according to LinkedIn, is “Snider, MBA Marketing.”

The next thing you might want to change is your Professional “Headline.”  I had my headline as “Business Development Director” because that is my current job title. Wrong! This should be your dream job title. For me, that is “Director of Marketing” or “Marketing Director.” It makes a difference which one you choose. This is where you are going to need to do a little quick research. Go to the People search in the upper right hand corner and test out the different job titles for the job you want. For me, I tried “Director of Marketing” and “Marketing Director.” When I did the search, I included the parenthesis. I do this because you want LinkedIn to see that job title as one keyword. If you just enter Marketing Director, then LinkedIn will find every occurrence of Marketing or Director. I am not really interested in people who were Band Directors and Marketing Coordinators.I want to find all Marketing Directors.

As it turns out, there are 218,923 “Director of Marketing” and 278,439 “Marketing Director.” You want to use the job title which gets the largest number of search results. You may think that is counter intuitive. You want to stand out, so why bury yourself in the largest group of results? The reason is, hiring mangers and recruiters fish in the pond with the most fish. Get yourself into that pond.

My friend recommends that you update your profile every day, once, between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM. You do this from the Home page (the page that LinkedIn shows you first when you log on). There is a field right next to your photograph called “Share an update.” You might post a hot news story related to your field. For me, that is easy. I am in marketing. Social media marketing is a hot topic and there is plenty of news to share each day. For you, that might not be so easy. I hope you belong to some groups on LinkedIn related to your profession. You can see what is being discussed on those groups and pick a topic or article to share. You are doing this for two reasons: you want people to know you stay current and you want people to be reminded that you exist. Out of sight, out of mind. If I want to hire a PMP, it helps if every morning when I get to work and pull up LinkedIn, I see Larry Schmidt, PMP sharing some hot topic gleaned from the Master Black Belt group. I might want to take a look at Larry’s LinkedIn profile.

My friend also blew everything I know about recommendations. He told me that I must get two recommendations for every job (or at least the jobs from the past 15 years). I’d been told that one recommendation bestows a little extra juice for the keywords found in a particular job profile. My friend said, “Two recommendations, twice as much juice.” The best way to do this is to reach out to a former boss and say, “Would you mind giving me a recommendation on LinkedIn? I have written something you might find useful as a starting point…” then you write your own recommendation. 9 times out of 10, they will post what you wrote with few or no changes…unless you went crazy and stated things that just were not at all true.

The last thing I want to mention is your volunteer work.  Edit your profile and right below the gray box that gives a quick overview of your history, there is a blue section called “Add sections.” Click on that and find “Volunteer Experience & Causes.” Select that and enter any volunteer work you do. According to an article in Fast Company, people who volunteer, get hired faster. I won’t go into the details from the article, but you should add uncontroversial volunteer work you do. I would shy away from mentioning any work you do for political candidates (as an example).

This is also a place where you can enter your ”causes.” Once again, proceed with caution. Habitat for Humanity is a pretty safe cause. Occupy Wallstreet….you might not get invited in for an interview.

Good Luck and Godspeed.

 James Snider
Business Development Director

Accelerant Marketing Alliance, LLC

jsnider@accelerantmktg.com

817 203 4944

The Spider in my Bathtub

There is a spider in my guest bath. He (or she) has built a web in my bathtub. Way down low, by the drain. This is a tiny little spider with a tiny little web. It has been there for a couple of weeks now. I have to wonder if any prey has found its way into his/her web. Obviously, this particular spider lacks some ability to select a prime spot to set up shop. There are very few insects in my guest bath and almost none in my bathtub. I occasionally see a tiny this or that but there are much better locations to catch a lunch. Outside, for instance.

This led me to wonder how long a spider can go without eating.  According to Yahoo! ANSWERS:

It depends on the species, but Spiders can go a long, long time without eating. Two weeks is nothing. Many could go months if they had to. By not moving around too much, slowing their metabolism, and not expending any unnecessary energy, they can live a long time without food.

In some ways, this describes my early months after getting laid off. I took what seemed like the safe path. I wanted to find a job at an established company with pay and job title consistent with my years of experience. I put my resume on various job boards and applied for the few near perfect jobs I found there. Despite the fact that we are told over and over that about 1% or 2% of job seekers get their jobs through job boards, most of us take this route. We know that we should be calling everyone we know, driving to a location convenient to them and buying them a cup of coffee or lunch. We should be looking up recruiters on LinkedIn and reaching out to friends of friends. We need to be expending a lot of energy and a fair amount of money for coffee, food, gas, thank you notes, stamps, etc. However, most of us are like that spider. We are doing what we have always done in the hopes that some hapless prey will come our way before we starve.  And, we are tightening our belt a little more each month as we see our bank accounts shrinking.

I met with a friend today who is going  the exact opposite direction and taking a very active approach. In 2011, he met, face-to-face with 426 people for informational interviews. He spends part of every day looking for recruiters on LinkedIn and connecting with them. Not just any recruiter, but ones that specialize in his line of work. He has become an expert at using the advanced search features on LinkedIn. He has even gone so far as to buy the upgraded LinkedIn service.

Once he connects, he sets up a meeting. He will accept a phone call if that is all he can get, but he prefers to meet face-to-face. He is no spring chicken and he is not exactly eye candy but he is upbeat and positive and genuinely likes people. It comes through when you meet him. His goal is to meet with 25 recruiters every week! Ridiculous? He is doing it.

So what does he say? Simply his 10 second commercial: What he has done and what he is looking for. Then he asks for advice and any additional contacts they might like to share with him.

His strategy is working. He is currently in the advanced stages of interviewing for five jobs. These are senior level jobs….the kind that are the most difficult to get.  He has reworked his LinkedIn profile based on the best advice available from David Lanners, a local LinkedIn guru. I have heard Lanners speak on a number of occasions, but my friend met him for coffee, bought him lunch and ended up spending seven hours with him (and taking 18 pages of notes.)

What motivates a guy to go to these lengths when the average job seeker spends an hour a day looking for a job? He was motivated by the same thing that eventually caused that tiny spider to vacate my bathtub drain. Hunger. Not literal hunger, but he drained his savings at a time when his kid was just about ready to start college. It was either find a job or tell his son that he could not go to the college he’d been planning on for the past two years. I had that conversation with my son. It was a hard one. How do you tell your kid that you were not willing to spend 12 hours a day working to make sure their plans for the rest of their life are not interrupted?

If you are at that stage in your job search, check my next blog post.  I will share with you some of my friend’s special LinkedIn secrets.

Good luck and Godspeed.

 James Snider
Business Development Director

Accelerant Marketing Alliance, LLC

jsnider@accelerantmktg.com

817 203 4944