WRITE TO EXCITE: Need A (Better) Job? Write!

Write to Excite with Peter Biadasz

In the past 3 months we have discussed your talent, your passion and controversy (Male or Female – Which is Superior?). Now we move onto a more personal topic, your job, or lack thereof.

If you find yourself unemployed, underemployed or just unhappy in your job/career you can utilize writing as a tool to drive you to the next level of success. No matter how you define success you will find that improving your writing skills in one or more of these areas will enrich your life both professionally and personally.

1 – Your Resume - It is amazing how many bad resumes exist amongst those who call themselves professionals. Many people think that their resume is merely a list of past employers and job responsibilities. Please remember that your resume is a marketing piece and that he product/service is YOU! When you or I buy a product or service we are buying results; we buy to answer “what’s in it for me?” Knowing that employers “buy” the same way, add to your resume your accomplishments. Lets face it, we all know what job titles are, what we don’t know is how you excelled in your job and how you added value to your position, your company and its employees. Review your resume today and add your accomplishments. You may find a better job as a result.

2 - Thank-you letters – Everyone likes to receive sincere thank-you letters. It makes us feel special, loved and alive with a purpose. People want to work with people who are not only competent, but make those around them feel good about themselves. Knowing this, I challenge you to write a thank-you note (not e-mail) and mail it to someone different everyday for 30 days. Thank you e-mails are ok, but do not have as much value as the experience of going to the mailbox, seeing that someone sent you some mail, holding an envelope addressed to you, opening up the envelope with anticipation and reading a signed than-you note. Add some joy to someone’s life today and write a thank-you note to those who have added joy to your life.

3 – Letters/e-mails to friends and family – Sometimes it is just good to get caught up with those that are important to us. We have all had the thought of getting in contact with someone “when things slow down”; but they never do slow down, do they? It is a reality that some people still feel very alone in spite have having so many people in their lives. Take some time everyday to write, e-mail or contact someone through social online media to caught up in what is going on in there life and let them know how you are doing. By doing so both of you both will be all the richer.

4 – Goals – Want to decrease your frustration level? Write out your goals. It is amazing how many people embark on this journey called life without their roadmap, which are their goals. Take a few minutes and write down 5 things that you want to accomplish in the next 6 months, both professionally and personally. In my public speaking life I give goal planning workshops, and we may devote an article to that. But in the mean time write down how you want your life to look, as well as a plan to achieve each goal.

5 - What you have always wanted to write – Take some time and write a piece you have always wanted to write; an article, poem, fiction or non-fiction book, etc. Get it out of your system and you may learn much in the process. My first article led to a book, which led now to 15 books and many more articles, and even to owning a publishing company, all in a few short years. You just never know where your first written piece will lead.

You will find that your writing will help you feel better about yourself and help others feel better about you. These attitudes combined with the learned in writing will be of great benefit as you word toward finding your dream job or profession. When you don’t know what to do, write to excite!

Peter Biadasz, author of such book as More Leads and Increase Your Sales And Lower Your Golf Score, as well as the newly released Write Your First Book, is President of Total Publishing And Media. To contact Peter about publishing or marketing your book feel free to contact him at Peter@TotalPublishingAndMedia.com

For more information, please visit Peter's TNNW Bio.

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WRITE TO EXCITE: Need A (Better) Job? Write!

CAREER MANAGEMENT: Your Career Management Toolbox

Career Management with Jason Alba

Job search is important, but one purpose of career management is to keep the length of job searches down. I can't say that doing all of these things will guarantee your job searches go faster, but you should be in more control. I'm amazed at the number of professionals who come to JibberJobber, or read my LinkedIn book, who have been excellent at doing their job but have no idea what to do in a job search.

I understand - I assumed my job search tactics would lean heavily on job boards and recruiters. I spent hundreds of hours spinning the wrong wheels - it's no wonder I wasn't getting anywhere! And the thought of doing a job search every three to five years was petrifying!

As I learned more about Career Management I became more empowered. Here's is the key to career management: relationships.

Not "collecting business cards," or "growing your network on LinkedIn." I'm talking about real networking. Once I read Keith Ferrazzi's Never Eat Alone I started to understand what real relationships and networking was all about - not me, but how I could help others. There are multiple benefits of helping others, but the key is that it helps your relationship go beyond typical superficial networking, and it puts you into a completely different league.

Everything in career management revolves around relationships. Consider "target companies." You've heard you should network your way into companies, right? No matter where you find them, you need to figure out how to get in... what if you had a strong, nurtured network you could tap into easily and quickly.

So, considering this, what do YOU think belongs in your career management toolbox? Here are some ideas... I'm not saying whether they should be in yours or not, but think about how each of these tools helps (or doesn't help) you nurture relationships:

• Job boards
• classified ads
• business cards
• JibberJobber (a website to organize your job search)
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Twitter
• resume(s)
• cell phone
• email account (not sexylegs@____.com)

What else is in your toolbox? Are there tools in there that are not really helping with anything? Are they helping you manage and nurture professional relationships - longterm?

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Jason Alba developed JibberJobber.com to replace the job search spreadsheet. He recently created LinkedIn for Job Seekers - the DVD. He is the author I'm on LinkedIn -- Now What??? and author of I'm on Facebook -- Now What???, both of which are designed to help professionals get more value out of these social networking tools. Learn more about Jason at http://twitter.com/jasonalba.

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CAREER MANAGEMENT: Your Career Management Toolbox

PEOPLE, POWER & POSSIBILITIES: We're All In This Together

People, Power and Possibilities with Donna Fisher

If you watch the economy, you will notice that there is a domino effect and ripple effect in place that validates how connected we are. When consumers stop buying, stores lay people off. When companies lay people off, people have less money to spend . . . etc. And this is just one example of how our actions, behaviors, decisions ripple out to make a difference (positive or negative) in our world.

One of the ways that we can all create a ripple effect in a positive direction is to do what we can to help people who are looking for a job. It's important to all of us, our communities, our country and our world that people have sustainable employment. We can all be on the lookout for job opportunities for people out of work

I had several people contact me this week who are doing just that. These individuals emailed me to say that they wanted to offer a scholarship to one of their friends to attend my "Networking Job Search Teleseminar". After receiving my email about the teleseminar, they contacted a friend, recommended the teleseminar and offered their "scholarship". They came up with this idea on their own out of their gracious, generous, caring spirit.

Let's all be "Job Matchmakers" on the lookout for job opportunities that we can pass along to job seekers.

• When you hear someone say they are looking for work, take a minute to find out more about their talents, skills and interests.
• Think as a resource and see if you have a contact that you can recommend that would be helpful.
• When you hear someone say that they are hiring, take a minute to find out more about what positions they have available.
• Take a moment to think about whether you know someone to recommend.
• Offer words of encouragement and support to people looking for work.
• You might be able to help someone by offering the use of your copier, fax printer, computer or office space for someone who is conducting a job search.
• Pass along websites, emails, articles that would be helpful to people looking for work.

Everyone will get back to work more quickly when all of us are looking for opportunities and connections for one another!

Donna Fisher

Author of Professional Networking for Dummies, Power Networking and People Power.

www.donnafisher.com

Connecting for a Greater Good

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PEOPLE, POWER & POSSIBILITIES: We're All In This Together

CAREER MANAGEMENT: Managing Your Career in Turbulent Times

Career Management with Jason Alba

Wow, what a year! According to speculation we're headed into a rough and bumpy 2009. Not great news for those in a long job search, not to mention those in wounded industries (banks, mortgage, etc.).

Ouch.

With all that is happening around us I can safely predict two things:

1. We'll make it through this just fine.

2. We will learn from this, and events leading up to this point, and be more serious than ever about our personal career management.

Why will we make it through this just fine? Because we have pulled through bad times before, at a world, national or personal level. Think about life and morale during The Great Depression... I'm guessing it was worse than it is now. Now people are worried about cutting back on splurges, while then people where literally worried about how they were going to get the basics to survive day-by-day. I cannot fathom the depths of despair that so many experienced during The Great Depression.

When I got laid off I had a number of safety nets to rely on, including family, church and neighbors. My family was the recipient of giving and goodness from each of those safety nets, because when I got laid off the recession/depression was personal, and others had the means and the hearts to help sustain us.

I realize there are people who are homeless, or who are looking for that morsel of bread, but I do think there are so many programs in place between churches and the government that we aren't going to see mass starvation and poverty like we did almost a hundred years ago.

We have to make it through this. And we will.

And when we do, we have to be ready for the next one. We need to be prepared. Because hundreds of thousands of professionals with degrees and credentials got kicked out on the street, even though they were high performers, even though they made or saved their companies money, and even though they were so very close to retirement.

Why do we think our boss will protect us from layoffs when he or she has as much "job security" as we do??

I must come out more independent, and be more career management minded. We must do things "between job searches" so that when we are in a job search it is not as long and/or painful. Here are a few ideas of what we can do in 2009, whether we are in a job search or not:

1. Grow our network. It's not all about numbers, but having a network of 500 is more powerful than having a network of 5. Go to networking functions... get out of the house or office!

2. Nurture relationships. Get beyond superficial and develop, as Keith Ferrazzi would say, "intimate relationships." If you don't know what that is, go get Never Eat Alone from your local library.

3. Have $1,000 ready for lunches. Okay, maybe not easy to accumulate $1k while in a job search, but I was thinking when I was in transition again I'd love to have $1,000 earmarked just for lunches, breakfasts, coffees, etc. I want to get a contact in a place where they can't leave, so we can develop a deeper relationship... usually a meal helps with this :)

4. Keep my eyes open for target companies. Always consider where you might be working next, or what problems you might help solve next. It's better if you start working those target companies now, and continue to work them no matter what your employment status is.

These are career management tactics. Job search is another thing, but my point is I think we need to have much more of a long-term, career management focus than a short-term job search focus.

What do you think?

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Jason Alba developed JibberJobber.com to replace the job search spreadsheet. If you need help organizing a job search, or your professional contacts, check out JibberJobber.com. He also authored I'm on LinkedIn -- Now What??? and coauthored I'm on Facebook -- Now What???, both of which are designed to help professionals get more value out of these social networking tools. Learn more about Jason at http://twitter.com/jasonalba.

Purchase your copies of Jason's books by clicking the images below:

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CAREER MANAGEMENT: Managing Your Career in Turbulent Times