Thursday, August 12
Ask a Recruiter: Take this job and…
I got the job! Now, how do I tell my boss I’m leaving?
Regardless of whatever feelings may have led to your impending departure, it is always advisable to leave things on good terms with your employer when you resign.
What does that mean?
Make it official. You need to submit a letter to your supervisor, and you should prepare a copy for HR as well, in order to announce your resignation. The letter should be polite, gracious and above all, appropriate; you don’t need to explain why you are leaving or where you will be going, just that you are.
Give a reasonable amount of notice. In some positions—sales guys, I’m talking to you—odds are, you’ll be shown the door immediately no matter how politely you quit, but you should never put yourself in a position to give fewer than two weeks notice.
Leave your position better than you found it. Do what you can to ease the transition: train someone on your essential job tasks, tie up loose ends, make things easy to find and leave clear instructions about what needs to be done once you’re gone.
Be thoughtful, professional and discreet. Don’t take this opportunity to tell your least favorite person in the office how you really feel. And even after you’ve gone, don’t air your dirty laundry—it will reflect poorly on you in your new position and you never know who might be listening.
Remember, most industries are smaller than we give them credit for and networking and references are invaluable in all of them.
Find some sample resignation letters here:
http://jobsearch.about.com/od/resignationletters/a/resignationlet.htm
Wednesday, August 11
This Week in Healthcare IT
from ihealthbeat.org
M&A, Financial Reports and Funding
Cegedim Healthcare Software, a global technology services company, will acquire Pulse, a health care software provider, with a $13.5 million capital infusion...Private equity firm Vestar Capital Partners V is set to acquire HealthGrades, a health care ratings organization, for $294 million.
Contracts
St. John Providence Health System in Michigan has selected eClinicalWorks' EHR software for its employed and affiliated physicians...St. Clair Hospital in Pennsylvania has selected GE Healthcare's health information exchange system with the aid of Preferred Healthcare Informatics...Allergy and Asthma Associates of Northern California has selected ITelagen, an EHR provider, to host, support and manage EHRs at Allergy's care centers.
Gulf Coast Medical Center in Florida has selected Wolters Kluwer Health to document and code gastroenterology procedures...Indiana Orthopedic Hospital has selected data mining software from InVivoLink to collect operating room data...EyeHealth Northwest has selected NextGen Healthcare's ambulatory EHR and practice management software for its Oregon care centers.
Product Development and Marketing
Halfpenny Technologies will integrate HT Systems' PatientSecure patient identification system into its information exchange software...Best Buy's small-business service unit has partnered with Cardiac Science to increase technology use among physicians.
ITelagen has entered into a partnership with Medficiency, a health care consulting group, in an effort to encourage widespread adoption of EHRs in northeastern U.S. physician practices...Samsung Electronics America has partnered with TeleHealth Services to introduce LCD televisions designed with hospital-specific features.
IBM has partnered with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to offer non-UPMC hospitals the university's SmartRoom technology...Greenway Medical Technologies announced Tech Data will make Greenway's PrimeSuite product available to thousands of IT reseller customers nationwide.
SRS will integrate its physician documentation software with Ingenix's Web-based practice management and scheduling system...Health Language and AZZLY have strategically partnered to integrate Health Language's Language Engine into AZZLY's EHR software...Royal Philips Electronics and SpineMark have joined to bring health care IT software by Philips to SpineMark's spinal care facilities.
Personnel
Tom Ogg -- former corporate director and CTO of Michigan-based Oakwood Healthcare -- has been selected as CIO of Akron Children's Hospital in Ohio...Justin Neece -- who was a partner at the Viability Company, a health care consultancy -- has been named COO of Shared Health in Tennessee
Read more: http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2010/7/30/health-it-business-news-roundup-for-the-week-of-july-30-2010.aspx#ixzz0wKL5yj4u
M&A, Financial Reports and Funding
Cegedim Healthcare Software, a global technology services company, will acquire Pulse, a health care software provider, with a $13.5 million capital infusion...Private equity firm Vestar Capital Partners V is set to acquire HealthGrades, a health care ratings organization, for $294 million.
Contracts
St. John Providence Health System in Michigan has selected eClinicalWorks' EHR software for its employed and affiliated physicians...St. Clair Hospital in Pennsylvania has selected GE Healthcare's health information exchange system with the aid of Preferred Healthcare Informatics...Allergy and Asthma Associates of Northern California has selected ITelagen, an EHR provider, to host, support and manage EHRs at Allergy's care centers.
Gulf Coast Medical Center in Florida has selected Wolters Kluwer Health to document and code gastroenterology procedures...Indiana Orthopedic Hospital has selected data mining software from InVivoLink to collect operating room data...EyeHealth Northwest has selected NextGen Healthcare's ambulatory EHR and practice management software for its Oregon care centers.
Product Development and Marketing
Halfpenny Technologies will integrate HT Systems' PatientSecure patient identification system into its information exchange software...Best Buy's small-business service unit has partnered with Cardiac Science to increase technology use among physicians.
ITelagen has entered into a partnership with Medficiency, a health care consulting group, in an effort to encourage widespread adoption of EHRs in northeastern U.S. physician practices...Samsung Electronics America has partnered with TeleHealth Services to introduce LCD televisions designed with hospital-specific features.
IBM has partnered with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to offer non-UPMC hospitals the university's SmartRoom technology...Greenway Medical Technologies announced Tech Data will make Greenway's PrimeSuite product available to thousands of IT reseller customers nationwide.
SRS will integrate its physician documentation software with Ingenix's Web-based practice management and scheduling system...Health Language and AZZLY have strategically partnered to integrate Health Language's Language Engine into AZZLY's EHR software...Royal Philips Electronics and SpineMark have joined to bring health care IT software by Philips to SpineMark's spinal care facilities.
Personnel
Tom Ogg -- former corporate director and CTO of Michigan-based Oakwood Healthcare -- has been selected as CIO of Akron Children's Hospital in Ohio...Justin Neece -- who was a partner at the Viability Company, a health care consultancy -- has been named COO of Shared Health in Tennessee
Read more: http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2010/7/30/health-it-business-news-roundup-for-the-week-of-july-30-2010.aspx#ixzz0wKL5yj4u
Tuesday, August 10
Weekly Wisdom: August 9, 2010
Watch for Interview Warning Signs
Hindsight may be better than 20/20, but if you pay attention during an interview, you might be able to head off a bad fit by Liz Ryan
I got a call from my friend Candace, and she was in low spirits. She had just returned to Wisconsin after moving to Florida to take a job. She took the job, she hated it, she lasted six months, she quit, and she moved back. "I should have known, " she said. "I should have picked up on the signs during the interview. There are always signs, aren't there? "
"I'm torn, " I told her. "If I tell you 'Yes, there are always signs' then you'll feel bad. If I say 'No, sometimes things just get weird after you're hired,' then you'll think the universe is capricious and you won't feel like you have any better odds of finding the right situation the next time around."
"Forget about my feelings!" she cried. "What do you really think?"
"I think you should tell me what you saw or heard in the interview process that you now feel you should have taken more seriously," I told her. "Then we can talk about what that sign might have meant, and what you could do differently in your upcoming job search."
The red flag
"O.K.," said Candace. "Well, there was only one sign, really. I was applying for a marketing communications job. I've always done a lot of writing and editing, and as you know, I have a Master's degree and I consider myself a really good writer. So there was one point in the last interview where my manager indicated that he was very interested in me and he was considering making me an offer. At that point he said: ‘You're an adequate writer, and I could make you better.'"
"GAAACK!" I said."
"That was a big sign I missed, wasn't it?" Candace asked.
"Well, " I told her, "the thing is that hindsight is 20/20. Hindsight is better than 20/20—it's LASIK. Through rear-facing glasses, it seems obvious that your ex-boss had issues."
"Right, well, he turned out to be a total control-freak and a guy who's impossible to please," she said. "That's why I left. Am I a complete idiot for missing that red flag?"
A Sick Ticket
"It's so easy to overlook those bizarre statements in the frenzy of the interview process," I reassured her. "Look, Candace, I've missed every sign in the book. I hired a guy in a human resources role who said in the interview that every 10 minutes, he asks himself: 'Am I having fun in my work?' I should have asked him a few questions about that. You mean literally, every 10 minutes? Who does that? It turned out that the guy was using his company cell phone to call some offshore gambling line every 10 minutes.
"O.K., back to your ex-boss. I'm an HR person and not a psychologist, but I'd call this guy a Sick Ticket. What kind of boss tells the person he's about to hire: 'You are adequate, but I could make you better?' That's totally passive-aggressive. It means that he wants to test you before hiring you, to make sure you're O.K. with being insulted. He wouldn't want to hire a person who would say something in his own defense."
"So I should have said something," Candace said.
"Hindsight is LASIK," I repeated. "Now listen. Let's say that you or any other candidate had said: 'Excuse me? You think I'm an adequate writer, but you want to hire me? I'm terribly sorry. I want to work for a company that I think is outstanding and that thinks I'm outstanding, too." Then your boss would have known that that person wasn't going to put up with his leadership style, if you want to call it that."
"And when he said he could make me a better writer that a signal that he didn't just want to be my boss, but he saw himself as superior to me, too. I mean, he's not even a writer,” Candace said.
The little weird thing
"Well, it's just such a hostile thing to say," I added. "Certainly if you hire someone right out of school, it's fine to say: 'We hope that I, as your manager, and lots of other people here will give you all sorts of professional training and mentoring.' That's great. But when you say to a seasoned professional, 'You're adequate and I can make you better,' it's like you're telling her that only with your expert guidance can she rise above her current state of mediocrity. That says a lot. The guy wanted someone under him who didn't have a lot of confidence. Too bad he hired you."
"Yeah, too bad for both of us," said Candace. "Well, now I know for next time."
"But next time the little weird thing in the interview, if there is one, will be different," I told her. "You don't have to react to it in the moment, and you don't even have to dope it out by yourself. After every interview, call a friend—me or someone else. Walk through the whole interview. A second pair of ears, a few hours after the fact, will help you figure out what means what and how to process all the information you've taken in. It can be a lot to digest on your own."
Deconstructing the Interview
"Especially when you've already talked yourself into the job," Candace added. "I'm going to have my red-flag radar on full alert on my next job hunt."
"The good news is that you'll never be sucked into that particular vortex again," I said. "Now that you've worked in the snake pit and survived, you have more confidence. You wouldn't sit still for a prospective manager telling you you're adequate, not in this lifetime anyway."
And this is true for all of you out there. Deconstruct the interview with someone, because if you don't see the signs, your friend might.
Hindsight may be better than 20/20, but if you pay attention during an interview, you might be able to head off a bad fit by Liz Ryan
I got a call from my friend Candace, and she was in low spirits. She had just returned to Wisconsin after moving to Florida to take a job. She took the job, she hated it, she lasted six months, she quit, and she moved back. "I should have known, " she said. "I should have picked up on the signs during the interview. There are always signs, aren't there? "
"I'm torn, " I told her. "If I tell you 'Yes, there are always signs' then you'll feel bad. If I say 'No, sometimes things just get weird after you're hired,' then you'll think the universe is capricious and you won't feel like you have any better odds of finding the right situation the next time around."
"Forget about my feelings!" she cried. "What do you really think?"
"I think you should tell me what you saw or heard in the interview process that you now feel you should have taken more seriously," I told her. "Then we can talk about what that sign might have meant, and what you could do differently in your upcoming job search."
The red flag
"O.K.," said Candace. "Well, there was only one sign, really. I was applying for a marketing communications job. I've always done a lot of writing and editing, and as you know, I have a Master's degree and I consider myself a really good writer. So there was one point in the last interview where my manager indicated that he was very interested in me and he was considering making me an offer. At that point he said: ‘You're an adequate writer, and I could make you better.'"
"GAAACK!" I said."
"That was a big sign I missed, wasn't it?" Candace asked.
"Well, " I told her, "the thing is that hindsight is 20/20. Hindsight is better than 20/20—it's LASIK. Through rear-facing glasses, it seems obvious that your ex-boss had issues."
"Right, well, he turned out to be a total control-freak and a guy who's impossible to please," she said. "That's why I left. Am I a complete idiot for missing that red flag?"
A Sick Ticket
"It's so easy to overlook those bizarre statements in the frenzy of the interview process," I reassured her. "Look, Candace, I've missed every sign in the book. I hired a guy in a human resources role who said in the interview that every 10 minutes, he asks himself: 'Am I having fun in my work?' I should have asked him a few questions about that. You mean literally, every 10 minutes? Who does that? It turned out that the guy was using his company cell phone to call some offshore gambling line every 10 minutes.
"O.K., back to your ex-boss. I'm an HR person and not a psychologist, but I'd call this guy a Sick Ticket. What kind of boss tells the person he's about to hire: 'You are adequate, but I could make you better?' That's totally passive-aggressive. It means that he wants to test you before hiring you, to make sure you're O.K. with being insulted. He wouldn't want to hire a person who would say something in his own defense."
"So I should have said something," Candace said.
"Hindsight is LASIK," I repeated. "Now listen. Let's say that you or any other candidate had said: 'Excuse me? You think I'm an adequate writer, but you want to hire me? I'm terribly sorry. I want to work for a company that I think is outstanding and that thinks I'm outstanding, too." Then your boss would have known that that person wasn't going to put up with his leadership style, if you want to call it that."
"And when he said he could make me a better writer that a signal that he didn't just want to be my boss, but he saw himself as superior to me, too. I mean, he's not even a writer,” Candace said.
The little weird thing
"Well, it's just such a hostile thing to say," I added. "Certainly if you hire someone right out of school, it's fine to say: 'We hope that I, as your manager, and lots of other people here will give you all sorts of professional training and mentoring.' That's great. But when you say to a seasoned professional, 'You're adequate and I can make you better,' it's like you're telling her that only with your expert guidance can she rise above her current state of mediocrity. That says a lot. The guy wanted someone under him who didn't have a lot of confidence. Too bad he hired you."
"Yeah, too bad for both of us," said Candace. "Well, now I know for next time."
"But next time the little weird thing in the interview, if there is one, will be different," I told her. "You don't have to react to it in the moment, and you don't even have to dope it out by yourself. After every interview, call a friend—me or someone else. Walk through the whole interview. A second pair of ears, a few hours after the fact, will help you figure out what means what and how to process all the information you've taken in. It can be a lot to digest on your own."
Deconstructing the Interview
"Especially when you've already talked yourself into the job," Candace added. "I'm going to have my red-flag radar on full alert on my next job hunt."
"The good news is that you'll never be sucked into that particular vortex again," I said. "Now that you've worked in the snake pit and survived, you have more confidence. You wouldn't sit still for a prospective manager telling you you're adequate, not in this lifetime anyway."
And this is true for all of you out there. Deconstruct the interview with someone, because if you don't see the signs, your friend might.
Wednesday, August 4
This week in Healthcare IT
M&A, Financial Reports and Funding
Cegedim Healthcare Software, a global technology services company, will acquire Pulse, a health care software provider, with a $13.5 million capital infusion...Private equity firm Vestar Capital Partners V is set to acquire HealthGrades, a health care ratings organization, for $294 million.
**PLUS: Ingenix to acquire PICIS and Executive Health Resources
Contracts
St. John Providence Health System in Michigan has selected eClinicalWorks' EHR software for its employed and affiliated physicians...St. Clair Hospital in Pennsylvania has selected GE Healthcare's health information exchange system with the aid of Preferred Healthcare Informatics...Allergy and Asthma Associates of Northern California has selected ITelagen, an EHR provider, to host, support and manage EHRs at Allergy's care centers.
Gulf Coast Medical Center in Florida has selected Wolters Kluwer Health to document and code gastroenterology procedures...Indiana Orthopedic Hospital has selected data mining software from InVivoLink to collect operating room data...EyeHealth Northwest has selected NextGen Healthcare's ambulatory EHR and practice management software for its Oregon care centers.
Product Development and Marketing
Halfpenny Technologies will integrate HT Systems' PatientSecure patient identification system into its information exchange software...Best Buy's small-business service unit has partnered with Cardiac Science to increase technology use among physicians.
ITelagen has entered into a partnership with Medficiency, a health care consulting group, in an effort to encourage widespread adoption of EHRs in northeastern U.S. physician practices...Samsung Electronics America has partnered with TeleHealth Services to introduce LCD televisions designed with hospital-specific features.
IBM has partnered with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to offer non-UPMC hospitals the university's SmartRoom technology...Greenway Medical Technologies announced Tech Data will make Greenway's PrimeSuite product available to thousands of IT reseller customers nationwide.
SRS will integrate its physician documentation software with Ingenix's Web-based practice management and scheduling system...Health Language and AZZLY have strategically partnered to integrate Health Language's Language Engine into AZZLY's EHR software...Royal Philips Electronics and SpineMark have joined to bring health care IT software by Philips to SpineMark's spinal care facilities.
Personnel
Tom Ogg -- former corporate director and CTO of Michigan-based Oakwood Healthcare -- has been selected as CIO of Akron Children's Hospital in Ohio...Justin Neece -- who was a partner at the Viability Company, a health care consultancy -- has been named COO of Shared Health in Tennessee.
Read more: http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2010/7/30/health-it-business-news-roundup-for-the-week-of-july-30-2010.aspx#ixzz0vfKOqJvi
Cegedim Healthcare Software, a global technology services company, will acquire Pulse, a health care software provider, with a $13.5 million capital infusion...Private equity firm Vestar Capital Partners V is set to acquire HealthGrades, a health care ratings organization, for $294 million.
**PLUS: Ingenix to acquire PICIS and Executive Health Resources
Contracts
St. John Providence Health System in Michigan has selected eClinicalWorks' EHR software for its employed and affiliated physicians...St. Clair Hospital in Pennsylvania has selected GE Healthcare's health information exchange system with the aid of Preferred Healthcare Informatics...Allergy and Asthma Associates of Northern California has selected ITelagen, an EHR provider, to host, support and manage EHRs at Allergy's care centers.
Gulf Coast Medical Center in Florida has selected Wolters Kluwer Health to document and code gastroenterology procedures...Indiana Orthopedic Hospital has selected data mining software from InVivoLink to collect operating room data...EyeHealth Northwest has selected NextGen Healthcare's ambulatory EHR and practice management software for its Oregon care centers.
Product Development and Marketing
Halfpenny Technologies will integrate HT Systems' PatientSecure patient identification system into its information exchange software...Best Buy's small-business service unit has partnered with Cardiac Science to increase technology use among physicians.
ITelagen has entered into a partnership with Medficiency, a health care consulting group, in an effort to encourage widespread adoption of EHRs in northeastern U.S. physician practices...Samsung Electronics America has partnered with TeleHealth Services to introduce LCD televisions designed with hospital-specific features.
IBM has partnered with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to offer non-UPMC hospitals the university's SmartRoom technology...Greenway Medical Technologies announced Tech Data will make Greenway's PrimeSuite product available to thousands of IT reseller customers nationwide.
SRS will integrate its physician documentation software with Ingenix's Web-based practice management and scheduling system...Health Language and AZZLY have strategically partnered to integrate Health Language's Language Engine into AZZLY's EHR software...Royal Philips Electronics and SpineMark have joined to bring health care IT software by Philips to SpineMark's spinal care facilities.
Personnel
Tom Ogg -- former corporate director and CTO of Michigan-based Oakwood Healthcare -- has been selected as CIO of Akron Children's Hospital in Ohio...Justin Neece -- who was a partner at the Viability Company, a health care consultancy -- has been named COO of Shared Health in Tennessee.
Read more: http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2010/7/30/health-it-business-news-roundup-for-the-week-of-july-30-2010.aspx#ixzz0vfKOqJvi
Tuesday, August 3
Ask a Recruiter: Where’s Waldo
This is one we get on a pretty regular basis around here: how (or where) did you find me?
Answer:
Wouldn’t you like to know!
Just kidding, we almost never answer that way. We prefer variations on that pithy reply like: “Recruiters are crafty!” “A good recruiter never reveals her sources!” Or my personal favorite, “Magic!”
The truth is there are lots of ways recruiters find candidates—the most traditional of them being good old fashioned cold calls. Other methods include:
1. Referrals! Recruiting is a relationship-based business, so our greatest value is in our network, our ability to locate the people who aren’t lurking on the job boards or plastering resumes all over the internet.
2. That said…job boards aren’t completely useless and some are better than others. Most of the recruiters I know have made at least one or two placements using job boards, but unless they specialize in recruitment process outsourcing it’s not a great way to build their business.
3. Social Media and Online Networking. Are you on LinkedIn? You should be—after searching her personal memory bank and launching a few searches into the old database, a tech savvy recruiter’s next stop is LinkedIn.
4. Speaking of databases…most recruiting firms have a database. If they’ve been in the business for a while, it’s likely a pretty good one (or at least a pretty dense one). If you have ever talked to a recruiter, if you have ever gotten an email or a voicemail from a recruiter, your name, contact info and the details of that activity have been logged and shelved for perpetuity.
5. Miscellany: newsletters, Twitter, facebook, trade organizations, google searches and directories.
Answer:
Wouldn’t you like to know!
Just kidding, we almost never answer that way. We prefer variations on that pithy reply like: “Recruiters are crafty!” “A good recruiter never reveals her sources!” Or my personal favorite, “Magic!”
The truth is there are lots of ways recruiters find candidates—the most traditional of them being good old fashioned cold calls. Other methods include:
1. Referrals! Recruiting is a relationship-based business, so our greatest value is in our network, our ability to locate the people who aren’t lurking on the job boards or plastering resumes all over the internet.
2. That said…job boards aren’t completely useless and some are better than others. Most of the recruiters I know have made at least one or two placements using job boards, but unless they specialize in recruitment process outsourcing it’s not a great way to build their business.
3. Social Media and Online Networking. Are you on LinkedIn? You should be—after searching her personal memory bank and launching a few searches into the old database, a tech savvy recruiter’s next stop is LinkedIn.
4. Speaking of databases…most recruiting firms have a database. If they’ve been in the business for a while, it’s likely a pretty good one (or at least a pretty dense one). If you have ever talked to a recruiter, if you have ever gotten an email or a voicemail from a recruiter, your name, contact info and the details of that activity have been logged and shelved for perpetuity.
5. Miscellany: newsletters, Twitter, facebook, trade organizations, google searches and directories.
Monday, August 2
Weekly Wisdom: August 2, 2010
Welcome to the age when resumes are no longer enough. If you want to stand out, you have to have a presence that extends beyond the page, or in most cases these days, the Outlook reading pane. With that in mind, here are some tips on creating your own professional brand because today everyone is a marketer and your flagship solution is you.
Taken from Building Your Online Career Brand: Five Tools for Job-Seekers by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
Career Branding Tools
1. LinkedIn profile. If you are a professional -- or an aspiring professional -- you must have a profile on LinkedIn, a business-oriented networking site that consists of millions of experienced professionals from around the world, representing hundreds of industries from more than 200 countries. When you join, you can create a profile that can serve as both a resume and an introduction to your career brand. Once your profile is completed, you then build connections with other members, getting introduced to new people through the people in your network. Read Jason Keath's 6 New LinkedIn Job Search Tips.
2. Personal Website. One of the best ways to build and promote your career brand is by developing a professional Website that showcases your key accomplishments. At a minimum, you should buy a domain name based on your name (for example, mine is RandallSHansen.com) and publish your resume. Even better, publish your career portfolio, content-rich articles, and other keyword-rich materials that will lead prospective employers looking for someone with your qualifications directly to your site. Read more in my article, SEO for Job-Seekers: 10 Tips for Building Your Online Brand.
3. Twitter account. Every day, more and more individuals and businesses are tweeting information, ideas, links, and more Ð all in under 140 characters per tweet (message). Twitter, a networking and micro-blogging site, enables people to connect and communicate -- developing both a following of people as well as following the tweets of others. Tweeting key information, resources, and other professional advice -- while building a following -- is a very easy way to build your career brand. Read this great blog post, , as well as Andy Headworth's The Ten Commandments for Job-Seekers on Twitter.
4. Professional blog. If you are a decent writer and can commit to writing regularly, creating a professional blog is a great tool for building your career brand. A blog is a specialized Website that focuses on a particular subject (person, industry, profession) that can include news, analysis, commentary, and links in a variety of formats (including print, audio, images, and video). Showcasing your expertise and knowledge of your industry or profession is an excellent way to build your career brand. Read Darren Rowse's How to Build Your Personal Brand Through Your Blog, as well as my article, Tips for Blog Publishing Success.
5. Social networking profiles/accounts. Consider joining at least two social-networking sites. One should be a general social-networking site, such as Facebook, and one should be career-specific (which you can find by searching Google -- most professions have multiple networking sites). While social networking is just that -- social -- remember that networking with others (online and off) is one of the most powerful tools of job-hunting as the majority of jobs are filled through referrals, not through responses to job postings. Read Dan Schawbel's article: Twitter, Facebook, Digg: Can You Join Too Many Networks?
Taken from Building Your Online Career Brand: Five Tools for Job-Seekers by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
Career Branding Tools
1. LinkedIn profile. If you are a professional -- or an aspiring professional -- you must have a profile on LinkedIn, a business-oriented networking site that consists of millions of experienced professionals from around the world, representing hundreds of industries from more than 200 countries. When you join, you can create a profile that can serve as both a resume and an introduction to your career brand. Once your profile is completed, you then build connections with other members, getting introduced to new people through the people in your network. Read Jason Keath's 6 New LinkedIn Job Search Tips.
2. Personal Website. One of the best ways to build and promote your career brand is by developing a professional Website that showcases your key accomplishments. At a minimum, you should buy a domain name based on your name (for example, mine is RandallSHansen.com) and publish your resume. Even better, publish your career portfolio, content-rich articles, and other keyword-rich materials that will lead prospective employers looking for someone with your qualifications directly to your site. Read more in my article, SEO for Job-Seekers: 10 Tips for Building Your Online Brand.
3. Twitter account. Every day, more and more individuals and businesses are tweeting information, ideas, links, and more Ð all in under 140 characters per tweet (message). Twitter, a networking and micro-blogging site, enables people to connect and communicate -- developing both a following of people as well as following the tweets of others. Tweeting key information, resources, and other professional advice -- while building a following -- is a very easy way to build your career brand. Read this great blog post, , as well as Andy Headworth's The Ten Commandments for Job-Seekers on Twitter.
4. Professional blog. If you are a decent writer and can commit to writing regularly, creating a professional blog is a great tool for building your career brand. A blog is a specialized Website that focuses on a particular subject (person, industry, profession) that can include news, analysis, commentary, and links in a variety of formats (including print, audio, images, and video). Showcasing your expertise and knowledge of your industry or profession is an excellent way to build your career brand. Read Darren Rowse's How to Build Your Personal Brand Through Your Blog, as well as my article, Tips for Blog Publishing Success.
5. Social networking profiles/accounts. Consider joining at least two social-networking sites. One should be a general social-networking site, such as Facebook, and one should be career-specific (which you can find by searching Google -- most professions have multiple networking sites). While social networking is just that -- social -- remember that networking with others (online and off) is one of the most powerful tools of job-hunting as the majority of jobs are filled through referrals, not through responses to job postings. Read Dan Schawbel's article: Twitter, Facebook, Digg: Can You Join Too Many Networks?
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