Why You Shouldnt Message Me On LinkedIn

Why You Shouldnt Message Me On LinkedIn Last week I was out of the office all week.  Two weeks earlier I was out for an entire week.  I was at camps with my kids and really didnt have access to anything online. I dutifully set up my out of office messages in my two main email systems, knowing that anyone who sent me an email would have known that I would take a few days to get back to them.  Unfortunately, I got a number of messages through LinkedIns messaging system and those people didnt get any message to let them know I was unavailable. They just got radio silence.  Sounds an awful lot like being ignored.  Or that I dont care to respond. LinkedIn is cool, for sure.  But its not the only tool you should use.  Use email, or the phone, but dont solely message people through LinkedIn. If you dont know someones email address, GET IT.  If you have it, USE IT. The other reason I suggest you dont use LinkedIn for primary or important messaging (if you arent doing important messaging, dont send the message!) is because messages from LinkedIn dont get in front of me very often.  A while back Google (Gmail) decided they needed to sift my email into three groups (they could have just named tabs 2 and 3 SPAM, right?): Guess where I spend most of my time? The Primary box. Guess where your LinkedIn message goes? NOT the Primary box. Dont use Gmail, so thats not an issue?  I suggest you check out your spam or junk folder, and see how many LinkedIn messages are in there.  That should be proof enough that you shouldnt depend on LinkedIn for sending messages. Want to get on my radar?  EMAIL ME directly. Sending me a message through LinkedIn is a gamble. How about you? Why You Shouldnt Message Me On LinkedIn Last week I was out of the office all week.  Two weeks earlier I was out for an entire week.  I was at camps with my kids and really didnt have access to anything online. I dutifully set up my out of office messages in my two main email systems, knowing that anyone who sent me an email would have known that I would take a few days to get back to them.  Unfortunately, I got a number of messages through LinkedIns messaging system and those people didnt get any message to let them know I was unavailable. They just got radio silence.  Sounds an awful lot like being ignored.  Or that I dont care to respond. LinkedIn is cool, for sure.  But its not the only tool you should use.  Use email, or the phone, but dont solely message people through LinkedIn. If you dont know someones email address, GET IT.  If you have it, USE IT. The other reason I suggest you dont use LinkedIn for primary or important messaging (if you arent doing important messaging, dont send the message!) is because messages from LinkedIn dont get in front of me very often.  A while back Google (Gmail) decided they needed to sift my email into three groups (they could have just named tabs 2 and 3 SPAM, right?): Guess where I spend most of my time? The Primary box. Guess where your LinkedIn message goes? NOT the Primary box. Dont use Gmail, so thats not an issue?  I suggest you check out your spam or junk folder, and see how many LinkedIn messages are in there.  That should be proof enough that you shouldnt depend on LinkedIn for sending messages. Want to get on my radar?  EMAIL ME directly. Sending me a message through LinkedIn is a gamble. How about you? Why You Shouldnt Message Me On LinkedIn Last week I was out of the office all week.  Two weeks earlier I was out for an entire week.  I was at camps with my kids and really didnt have access to anything online. I dutifully set up my out of office messages in my two main email systems, knowing that anyone who sent me an email would have known that I would take a few days to get back to them.  Unfortunately, I got a number of messages through LinkedIns messaging system and those people didnt get any message to let them know I was unavailable. They just got radio silence.  Sounds an awful lot like being ignored.  Or that I dont care to respond. LinkedIn is cool, for sure.  But its not the only tool you should use.  Use email, or the phone, but dont solely message people through LinkedIn. If you dont know someones email address, GET IT.  If you have it, USE IT. The other reason I suggest you dont use LinkedIn for primary or important messaging (if you arent doing important messaging, dont send the message!) is because messages from LinkedIn dont get in front of me very often.  A while back Google (Gmail) decided they needed to sift my email into three groups (they could have just named tabs 2 and 3 SPAM, right?): Guess where I spend most of my time? The Primary box. Guess where your LinkedIn message goes? NOT the Primary box. Dont use Gmail, so thats not an issue?  I suggest you check out your spam or junk folder, and see how many LinkedIn messages are in there.  That should be proof enough that you shouldnt depend on LinkedIn for sending messages. Want to get on my radar?  EMAIL ME directly. Sending me a message through LinkedIn is a gamble. How about you?

20 Common Interview Questions and What to Say

20 Common Interview Questions and What to Say 20 Common Interview Questions and What to Say While you can never guarantee what questions you are going to get at an interview, there are a number that you most likely to turn up. Preparing yourself to answer these questions will also inspire you for similar questions but be ready for the outside-the-box strange question that many businesses now use!1. Tell me about yourselfGive a few basic details about yourself then highlight a few relevant details from your education before speaking about your professional experience. Focus on skills and experience that is relevant to the job at hand.2. Tell me something more about yourselfJust when you think you have answered the tell me about yourself question well, many interviewers will ask you for more. Try to pick something that is both relevant and isn’t on your resume or isn’t there in any detail. Because your resume only contains the basics, add in more information about a skill or trait that is appealing considering the role.3. What is your experience in this field?Talk abou t the jobs you have held but also elements within it â€" courses you have taken, tools or software used as well as projects that you have worked on. Include dates to show that the information is still current.4. What skills do you have?Before an interview, write a list of the skills you have that have an impact on the job you are applying for. Remember this to prompt yourself when you go the interview. Then take that snippet and add to it, so if you are a team player, speak about the skills required to be a good team member such as listening to others.5. Why did you leave your last job?Be positive and be honest when answering this question. Focus on the positive reasons for changing jobs such as looking for a new challenge or a lack of career growth in your old job. Perhaps you were a victim of restructuring or the company has relocated, these are also legitimate reasons. 6. Why were you fired?This happens to people for a host of reasons including financial cut backs or differenc es within the work place. Whatever the reason, he honest about it and try not to blame a previous boss.7. What do you know about this company?Do a little research into the company beforehand so you know its background, maybe its current focus or direction. The question is often about your analytic skills as your interest in the organisation.8. Why do you want this job?Focus on the main aspects of the job and why this appeals to you. It might be the chance to learn new technology, work in a new environment or work on a specific type of project. Or focus on that it is a natural extension of your skills or experience and the best step on your career path.9. What do you find interested about this role?Focus on the career benefits of the job rather than financial aspects or benefits.10. What challenges are you looking for from this job?The role itself helps you choose what challenges you will focus on for this question. If it job involves working with a certain software or a project, the n the challenges of this is what you are searching for from the role.11. Would you relocate or be willing to travel?Employers look for flexibility but also practicality â€" you might not be keen to relocate with two school age kids but be willing to travel for a time. Be honest.12. What salary are you seeking?Sometimes this is about seeing if you are money or career focused. Negotiating the salary package happens after the job is offered so simply state a salary range within what is mentioned in the job advert.13. What kind of goals and objectives do you have for your career?Like Question 9, the aspects of the job can be used to give you an answer and should be orientated towards the employer, what benefits them. 14. What motives you?Go for specific statements based around the role such as enjoy interacting with customers on a regular basis or working with a team to achieve a goal.15. Can you work without supervision?Obviously yes but this is a chance to use your experience of wo rking alone and with a team to back up your suitability for the role.16. What’s the most difficult situation you have faced and how did you handle it?Pick something from your experience that highlights certain skills such as taking action, strategizing or clarifying the root of a problem to solve it.17. What are your strengths and weaknesses?Don’t be defensive with this one but use it as a chance to highlight your skills and include a weakness that can even be a benefit such as needing to learn more about a certain skill.18. How do you manage working as part of a team?Give examples from your previous role where you successfully worked as part of a team and what you contributed to this project.19. What makes you the best candidate for this job?Consider the skills and talents you have that make you the best person for the job but avoid sounding boastful. You can review your experience and use this as evidence to back up your case.20. Why should we hire you?Like question 19, look a t a series of short, sharp reasons why you are the best candidate for the job. Highlight your skills and experience, your personal accomplishments, education but slant it all from the view of what that brings to the employer. previous article Sales Resume Template Giveaway Humble Green next article Free Resume Template for the Ladies The Vintage Rose you might also likeWhy Do You Want to Work Here? Best Answers to This Interview Question

4 Twitter tips no one will give you

4 Twitter tips no one will give you I think its time for me to address the fact that I have 56,000 followers on Twitter but I have tweeted only 500 times. If I were an aging rock star or philandering basketball player, this might not be remarkable. But Im basically a normal person. So Im going to give you four twitter tips that no one else will tell you. 1. Focus on quality over quantity First, lets talk about purpose. Why are you on twitter anyway? There are tons of really valid goals for twitter, but most of them require influence. I mean, you need twitter influence in order to reach almost any goal on twitter. Because twitter is about sharing information with people who matter to you. If you want to publicize stuff on twitter you definitely need influence. But at the other end of the spectrum (where I am) if you just want to write well, you also need influence because if you are writing and no one is listening then you are not really communicating. The biggest reason for you to focus on influence, though, is that money doesnt make us happy, but influence does. I spent two hours trying to find this article in the New York Times. I cant find it because as soon as you put influence and happiness in a search string you get stuff that influences happiness but you cant search influence influence happiness. Anyway, trust me that if you have influence, you feel happier. Which maybe means that the smartest thing you can do is obsessively watch Twitter rankings. But it probably means that you should think about if you have the type of followers you want. For example, if your goal is to sell timeshares in Nairobi, you only need 24 followers as long as they each book two weeks out of the year. Or, heres another way to think about it. The founder of LinkedIn, Konstantin Guericke, once told me that you only need 30 contacts to have a quality network as long as the contacts are well connected. I think this probably means that you only need 30 twitter followers who really care about what you say if you are using twitter to build a network that will support you in your career. 2. Get a writing partner Twitter is basically a writing platform. So why is the writing so bad? Why are people so uninteresting? I think the best way to get influence on twitter is to be interesting. More tweets that are not interesting is not as effective as a fewer tweets that are interesting. The larger a twitter following you want, the more you have to concentrate on writing what a larger audience would wantand not just what your immediate friends want. So, when it comes to writing for a large audience, maybe you should have a helper. I have a twitter editor. For me, its very normal because Ive been a writer for so long, with various editors, that it was natural for me to have a blog editor, and once you have a blog editor, a twitter editor is not a far leap. Anyway, very few people have been creative geniuses on their own. Joshua Wolf Shenk has a whole column on Slate devoted to this topic or partnering to release creative genius. He says theres tons of research to show that you need a cohort: To illustrate the consistently hidden partner with an obvious example: Book editors dont put their names on covers. Their reputation largely depends on authors?who can be notoriously ungrateful and committed to the idea of their solitary genius. Jack Kerouacs On The Road sat on slush piles all around Manhattan until Malcolm Cowley, then an editor at Viking, undertook the laborious effort (literary, political, emotional) of shaping it for publication. But afterward, Kerouac and the Beats portrayed Cowley as a villain who muddied the famous unbroken typescript, which they claimed was powered by Benzedrine and holy light. Some of you, probably those of you who think youre such a genius that you cant work with anyone else, doubt this premise. So heres another good example from Shenk of us thinking that we see people do things on their own, but we dont: Tigers distance control was a problem, Williams explained to Golf magazine. So I would adjust yardages and not tell him. Woods ended up hitting the ball inside two feet from the cup and went on to win. Williams has said that he gave Woods incorrect yardages for the better part of five years. So if you want to focus on doing good writing, which will guarantee that you build a community of people who appreciate good writing (which, we all know, eliminates 90% of the population) then you need a writing partner, or at least a good muse. 3. Focus on happiness. I am over the happiness thing, to be honest. I am done trying to be happy. When Tyler Cowen first told me that interesting lives are nicer than happy lives, I thought he was an Aspergers apologist. But I am really feeling that as long as I have a few friends who are all trying to live interesting lives as well, I am fine. I dont need to strive for happiness. (Do you want to know if you strive for happiness or interestingness? Take this test.) This is, of course, after I followed every piece of happiness advice out there and moved to one of the places in America that has the highest density of happiness: Rural Wisconsin. But, anyway, if you want to be the center of influential social networks, you need to appear happy, according to research from Nicholas Christakis, professor of sociology at Harvard University. Maybe I am the exception to this rule. Because I am able to find the yucky messiness in any happy situation but I still have a lot of followers. But I do appreciate the fact that the happy people do no research about happiness because they are happy (and mostly dont read because reading creates new experiences and people who search for interesting rather than happy are the ones are more open to new experiences). And unhappy people love the happiness research. So I am a maven of unhappiness and the research to alleviate it. And I can tell you that you should put a happy smile photo of yourself on twitter because Christakis says that you will be more influential on networks. And, if you are trying to figure out what to spend your time on twitter doing, think about this, from Christakis: We found that each additional happy friend increases a persons probability of being happy by about 9%. For comparison, having an extra $5,000 in income (in 1984 dollars) increased the probability of being happy by about 2%. This means that all those people on twitter who are trying to sell stuff to create an alternative revenue source in their lives (which I estimate to be an unfortunate 95% of all people on twitter) should think about using twitter to make happy friends, instead. 4. Be black on twitter For the last year, I have been bombarding Brazen Careerists community manager, Ryan Paugh with my observations about the trending topics. They are always full of black people. But if I looked at my list of followers, Id think there are almost no black people on twitter. And if I only read trending topics, Id think twitter was mostly a black person thing. Whenever Im bored at night, (and Ive worn out my weekly limit on impulsive eBay shopping), I click the trending topics on twitter. I am not alone in this. Other white people write about their fascination with late-night trending topics from black people. For those of you who dont know what trending topics is, heres an explanation from Farhad Manjoo who wrote a great piece about being black on twitter for Slate: On Twitter, people append hashtags to categorize their messages?the tags make it easier to search for posts on a certain topic, and they can sometimes lead to worldwide call-and-response conversations in which people compete to outdo one another with ever more hilarious, bizarre, or profane posts. So, anyway, last weekend, I clicked on the trending topic #ghettocompanies I click on stuff like this because I can tell its going to be a conversation that is one that I would never find myself at in real life, but online, I can lurk. Here are some good ones: Yes, these examples reinforce stereotypes. I know; it reminds me of how my family sits around telling Jewish jokes that reinforce stereotypes, but we dont care because we are Jewish. But back to the how to be great at twitter part of this post. The reasons these trending topics do so well on twitter is that the groups of people who are using them are tightly knit. This information comes from Brendan Meeder, who appears to be getting a PhD from Carnegie Mellon by publishing information about how black people use Twitter. Tightly knit groups of people retweet each other and they participate in each others games. This is true of lots of groups on twitterits a very cliquey environment. But whats interesting is that black people are more tightly aligned than white people. Thats why they dominate on the trending topics, according to Meeder and Manjoo. This actually makes sense. And now, I am wondering if its okay to tread on racist territory too make the following analogy: There is also evidence that black people are more tightly knit than white people in prison. I was doing research on prison violence (these are my two pet topics for late-night research: prison violence and plane crashes. I hope theres a special Jeopardy for these topics. I will be a millionaire.) Anyway, prison violence is skyrocketing, and prisoners in the U.S. receive unwanted sexual advances 80,000 times per day. But the population most likely to be raped are white men under the age of 25. Of course, all men under the age of 25 are prime targets because young men are hotter than old men. But white men are more vulnerable because if a black man rapes a black man, the black prisoners will attack him. The same is true with Latino men. And if a black man rapes a Latino man or a Latino rapes a black, the men who are the same race as the victim will seek revenge. But the white people are not used to thinking of themselves in terms of race. So white men do not protect other white men. Now Im really on a tangent, but I cant resist telling you. This usually starts happening in a low-security prison where guards are trying to figure out what a prisoner will be like and where to send him. The non-violent white criminals get pounced on right away. The trauma of rape makes a person start looking crazy, and then they get put in a high security prison because they are acting crazy. And in a high security prison a young, non-violent prisoner is dead meat. Okay. So Im a little worried about this last piece of advice, which is, in case weve lost focus, to act like youre black on twitter so that people participate in your stuff and you participate in other peoples stuff and you have a tight-knit group. I think people will say this is racist. But what I really want is a conversation about it. So Im taking a risk. And maybe this is the real piece of advice. Take a risk with twitter. Try doing something with it that maybe pushes you a little outside your comfort zone. That is the way to make life the most interesting from twitter, and maybe thats all we can ask from any technology.

Why Social Media Makes it Possible for Gen-y to Succeed - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Why Social Media Makes it Possible for Gen-y to Succeed - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Its challenging for members of the Gen-Y grouping to succeed without some pathway to Gen-X. Social media has emerged as a channel, by which Gen-Y can communicate with Gen-X, freely, readily and with scale. Starting a blog is really a simple process, which doesnt require much learning by members of Gen-Y because they are already bred through school to pickup new technologies at a rapid pace. Most business students have web development built into their curriculum, therefore the concept of a blog is logical to them. Social networks cling to Gen-Y before they even laid eyes on Gen-X. Forums, wikis and other forms of collaboration and communication are social and scholastic tools used as well. Gen-Y and Gen-X both share one commonality online: they are users. Users have social media tools at their disposal and the freedom to subscribe or unsubscribe from blogs, to discard emails, to opt out of forums and to edit a wiki, neglecting others input. The user is king in this web 2.0 world. Since Gen-Y and Gen-X can both use social media to converse, they both realize that they can actually help each other out. For instance, a Gen-Y blog that has comments from Gen-Xers, will prove to be more credible and Gen-X comments on Gen-Y blogs, will pull in new ways and techniques that Gen-X isnt prone to hearing. By having these contact points, Gen-Y can quickly reach out to Gen-X and ask for mentorship and opportunities, like they never could before. Blogs and social networks carry email, phone and commenting services that allow you to ping Gen-Xers. Oh and guess what, Gen-X is very receptive. More than ever before. Thank you Gen-X for nurturing and supporting our personal brands. What are your experiences?

Writing an American Resume: How to Find Refreheries For Schools You Attended

Writing an American Resume: How to Find Refreheries For Schools You AttendedA key part of writing an American resume is finding refernces for the schools you attended. These can be a good source of reference, especially if you attended a very prestigious school. Make sure that they are highly ranked.First off, they need to have access to these references, because this will make it easier for potential employers to get what they need. You don't want them to send a form letter to people who did not go to the school that you said they went to. So you need to have this information.But the particular refueres you choose should also match your personality and the job you're trying to get. There are many lists of references out there. Go to the information on websites that have everything listed for the schools you wanted to attend. Go through them and look at each one, one by one.Once you've found one or two refusens that suit you and your personality, list the ones that fit into a certain group, or have some qualities that seem to compliment you. If you really want to know where you could possibly apply, then go ahead and apply to as many positions as you can. This will help you narrow down your search and your resume.When you apply to many positions, you may find that you want to apply to more than one school. You don't want to leave one school out in the cold. Some people think that the best way to do this is to include information about their school when you apply to as many different positions as possible. But that is simply not true.It is far better to have refernces that apply to as many positions as possible. That way you'll have more options available to you. This will allow you to work on creating a much better resume, and it will save you time and you'll also get the information you need more quickly.You should know what you need to do and then go and fill in all the spaces where you think the information might apply. The schools you were looking at might be a bit different, but they might still have the information you need. You may need to put a little bit of extra effort to make sure they have what you need.If you don't have excellent research skills, then don't worry about it. Your school is probably already listed on a website. If not, then you may have to do a little bit of searching to get your hands on the four information you need.

Its All in A Handshake Your Career Future

Its All in A Handshake Your Career Future Its All In A Handshake Your Career Future A handshake can make a difference. This morning, I was giving a presentation to a group of job seekers, and as customary, went around the room introducing myself and shaking peoples hands before the session. Most of us are either taught or read advice about how to provide a firm handshake that exudes confidence, enthusiasm, and gives a little clue about who we are. But in doing a lot of this kind of work, Ive found that many people simply dont get how to do it right. Theres always someone in the group that extends a clammy and limp appendage as a handshake that leaves the recipient wondering where the bathroom is located, in order to wash themselves off. Or, theres the handsqueezer who takes it as a personal challenge to play chicken on who withdraws their hand first as a result of the tectonic forces being exerted in the handshake. Case in point today: M was a job seeker that came in close to the end of the networking time and not too long before the program started. I made eye contact with him, smiled, and introduced myself while reaching out to shake his hand. What happened next nearly brought tears to my eyes. Women are often described as the gentle sex and yes, we dont possess the sheer physical strength that men do.  But I am all about giving a good firm handshake to communicate equality. But M took this gesture to a whole new level. His hand squeezed mine so hard that the bones started to crunch. It was like putting my hand into a vise. Ive never had ANYONE shake my hand so hard that I have literally been on the verge of crying out in pain. In todays scenario, Ms handshake mercifully ended when I withdrew. I smiled at him (not sure if it really wasnt blinking back tears seriously), and started to turn away. But then I stopped. As a career management coach, I am programmed to provide learning opportunities when possible to help job seekers. I realized that this gentlemans handshake could very likely be a career obstacle unto itself. So instead, I turned back to him and said in a lower voice, You know, your handshake was so strong that it was becoming painful. Especially when shaking a womans hand, this is not appropriate. You might want to try and tone this down. He looked at me confused; so I repeated myself, and explained that I was a coach who wanted to help him. I think he understood, but was a little chastised. My point here is that we hear so much about all the factors we need to be monitoring about ourselves during a job search, and even something as simple as a handshake can change someones perception about you. M was dressed professionally, had a nice elevator pitch, and I saw him smiling and engaging with other attendees. But my takeaway from our encounter is that M subconsciously has power issues and was trying to dominate not only me, but other people that received his vise-like grip. Something to consider the next time you go to a networking function. How are you going to shake hands? What is it saying about you? Its all in your handshake which is a powerful personal connection. Handshake: By Lucas (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Business Card Giveaway - CareerEnlightenment.com

TO ENTER : Leave a comment with the phrase  â€Gettin Carded”   and  answer the question, tell me about yourself as if you and I were meeting face to face at a networking event. I want to hear your best elevator pitches.PRIZE SHIPS :   US residentsNITTY GRITTY :   This giveaway ends on Thursday,  August 4th at 8am PST.   Only one contest entry per  email address.    The winners will be chosen using Random.org and announced on Friday,  August 5th.GOOD LUCK!*2 x 3.5? Rounded Corners, 2×2? Rounded Corners, 1.75×3.5? Rounded Corners, 2×3.5? Leaf, 2×3..5 Rounded one corner, 2×3.5? Half Circle Side, 2×3.5? Oval, 2.5? Circle 14pt Cardstock Gloss / Matte / High Gloss (UV), or 13pt Cardstock Uncoated, 6 Business Days Turnaround with Free shipping