I am sitting here sipping on orange-banana-carrot smoothie, part of my new “green smoothie a day” routine…though this one is more orange than green, it’s still good for you…yummy!
Two more days and I am on a plane, my Kindle Fire is loaded with books and movies and my mind is halfway there already.
So without further delay, let’s get started…but before we do, I just to make sure that you are up to speed, we are now on Career Success Day 7 and you should have completed ALL the earlier steps mentioned below:
Related posts:
Career Success Day 1: Know yourself
Career Success Day 2: Say goodbye to career mistakes
Career Success Day 3: Big dreams never die
Career Success Day 4: Pat yourself on the back
Career Success Day 5: Magnify your personal brand
Career Success Day 6: Develop a knockout executive resume
Great…now that you are confident about yourself and your career story, it’s time to move the message beyond your resume.
On the 7th day of the holidays, my career coach said to me:
When it comes to career success, it’s okay to be seen and heard
Try this exercise – “Google” yourself and evaluate the results – does the information fit your personal brand, is it accurate, positive and supportive to your career advancement goals?
Understand this, in addition to reviewing your executive resume and career marketing documents, potential employers, hiring managers, and recruiters are eager to see what is behind the scenes. They conduct online research to get the real scoop and learn more about what you have to offer; they also carefully read others’ comments on your abilities and past performance.
Get over your technology phobia and Internet phobia and accept that a strong online presence is simply essential in today’s job search and should remain as part of your ongoing career management strategy.
- Start off by developing a complete, branded profile (with solid achievements and recommendations) on LinkedIn, Zoominfo, Ziggs, Google and Jigsaw.
- Get fancy and create a web-based portfolio that can house your career-related articles, videos, blog posts, etc…try Weebly.com and purchase your own URL (in your personal name) if you want to upgrade to an actual website at a later point.
- Share your thought leadership – if you enjoy writing articles or brief columns, submit your work frequently to free websites like selfgrowth.com, ezinearticles.com and articlestreet.com.
- Join the conversations online with smaller, targeted groups and forums specialty Yahoo and Google) (where you can openly share your opinion on industry trends, offer advice to colleagues and invite meaningful discussions among the group members.
- Get active on Twitter by identifying and following the trend setters and thought leaders in your target industry, but be a giver and receiver of information.
These strategies are not all inclusive, but they are enough to get you started and comfortable with the process….still not convinced? See what comes up when my name (Abby Locke) is “Googled”. You want the same results when employers do an online search for you.
