How many of you have a job, or would consider yourself in the employment market? Probably most of you.... but how many of you can honestly say that you have your resume updated, ready to go, and the skills you've developed are adequately on display so you can be found by an employer desperately in need of what you have to offer.... your "
product"? Not many of you, based on my experience over the past 13 years of being an executive recruiter and owner of successful staffing/recruiting firm.
Do you also know how many companies are able to sell a product they have locked away in a warehouse where no one can find it.... also not many?
CareerScribe gives you the opportunity to easily display that "
product", your career history in a professional portfolio, and only make yourself as available as you want to be through privacy settings. You can even introduce yourself to prospective employers, customers or other networking professionals through a short video introduction.
For prospective employers....
CareerScribe offers a process that is a
MUCH more efficient and cost effective way of gaining insight on candidates than the traditional interview process, and eleminates the need for many of the unnecessary face to face interviews that are being conducted. Ever have that interview where you know within 5 minutes or less that it's going no where... "
don't call us, we'll call you"? But then you spend the next 30 minutes continuing the interview to be polite and professional, realizing the candidate is scheduled to interview with 2 others in your company.... ouch! Significant time and money is spent on interviews that should have never taken place if you had the right insight to start with.
These are just some of the many value propositions that CareerScribe has to offer.
Come check us out at
www.CareerScribe.com and see the difference we can make in your process.
Thank you.....
Jeff Bockelman
I have to admit I am someone that does listen to some of the conversations that go on at other tables around me at the local
Starbucks,
Paradise Bakery and
Panera Breads.
It's amazing how many of those conversations seem to touch on employment. Either someone is unhappy in their job, looking for a job, trying to fill a job... or just frustrated with their staff. My guess is that 75% of coffee shop conversations will touch on employment at some point.
Furthermore, coffee shops have become second offices for many professionals, and one business meeting can result in 3-5 mini meetings when you are introduced to others by the person you're with at the time. Kinda like speed networking!
Those mini meetings at coffee shops allow the next meeting to be warm, and much easier. Likewise, building a profile on
CareerScribe, along with an introduction video, is an easy way to introduce yourself beyond a one page resume, making that next meeting all the more warm. When you realize that you can build a professional portfolio as part of your CareerScribe profile, you can understand how first interviews can be eliminated, and why online employee screening is becoming so popular.
I never thought the Weiner Mobile could be outdone.
... but then the Nut Mobile comes along!!!
You just never know what you'll see when you're out driving around. Brands are all around us. If we were only as recognizable as Mr. Peanut, we wouldn't have to worry about a career portfolio. A place like
CareerScribe to put our best work and examples of our accomplishments to help develop our own personal brands.
Companies are always looking for progressive ways to differentiate and screen employees, both internal and external. Consider progressive ways to represent yourselves to them!
What better examples of personal branding.... Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn, Apolo Ohno, mogul star Dale Begg-Smith (the Man of Mystery).
All memorable brands, but if you think this happens by chance, or without effort.... think again! And without these brands, will their athletic accomplishments be remembered years in the future?
Much in the same way, individuals need to be developing their own personal brand through use of career portfolios and personal branding tools. By using tools like this, professionals can stand out amongst their competition, and be remembered during the candidate sourcing and candidate evaluation process.
Check out
CareerScribe for just such a solution!
In a recent comment to the Smaller Indiana question above, I offered these thoughts:
The term "personal brand", is a bit lame... but it has begun to stick. I live in this space, and I can tell you, that in just the last 30 days, I have heard the term "personal brand" used and recognized more than in the last 6 months. I'm willing to wager, you are going to hear it more in the next year, and it will be nothing new in 3 years.
Call it what you will, the concept is about the information that is available to everyone about you. Information that forms a basis for who people think you are.... whether it is your hobbies and interests, your religious affiliation, your family, your education, your career, charitable work, where you grew up, etc., etc., etc. Organizaitons use this information to screen employees. Fair or not, all of these things collectively allow others to form an opinion of you. An opinion that you can't discuss with them.... not that they would even give you a straight answer if you asked them anyway.
Everyone should consider being proactive with this. You will have a tough time removing much of the information on you that can be found on the internet, but you can make a conscious decision about what you would like others to think about you in the next 5-10 years, and try to manage that impression. Develop an online professional portfolio of your best stuff. Over time.... you can likely change your "brand", much like Target did.... but it takes time.
Most are going to talk about personal branding, but many aren't going to take the long term steps necessary to really make a difference. I believe that there is great opportunity here.... obviously (CareerScribe), to get ahead of your competition, at least for a few years.... then who knows.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is conducting a challenge to find online career and search tools. This is a perfect challenge for CareerScribe as we are a free, ongoing virtual career management system for individuals to develop their personal brand.
The DOL has created a website for this challenge, that allows a company in enter information about its solution. After a company enters into the challenge, it is up to the public to vote (and comment) on entries. CareerScribe has already submitted our application and would love your help in securing a top spot in this challenge, as we provide opportunities for both individuals and companies to utilize our online platform and services for career management and development.
One vote already cast for us summarized our tool in a great comment:
"As a Career Coach, I find this tool to be extremely useful in two primary ways.
1. Information -
While preparing my clients for a job search, this tool gives them the ability to collect all of their valuable information about their career in one place.
2. Presentation-
The CareerScribe system allows for a through and organized presentation of their skills to potential employers.
I am confident that this system has helped many of my clients in the acquisition of their next opportunities, and I intend on using it for years to come."
To cast your vote and help us continue the CareerScribe movement, and grow our community, follow these steps:
1) Visit the U.S. DOL Challenge
2) Click "Login/Signup"
3) Enter unique email address (each email counts as 1 vote) and create password
4) Answer the 2 questions and click "post data"
Here's the important part!
You are now logged in and can submit your vote.... to do so:
5) Visit the CareerScribe entry page
-
Be sure it says "CareerScribe" before you vote!
6) Click "Recommend Tool" to vote
And your done!
We appreciate all your help, and look forward to helping more individuals develop their personal brand and manage their careers! For more information on how CareerScribe works with companies for quality hiring and our applicant tracking system, you can find more information here.
Recently I conducted several career classes at IU University where I discussed personal branding and
CareerScribe.
One of the first questions I asked each class of 60 was... "How many of you have Googled your own name recently?". I was shocked that only 4-5 students raised their hand. Taking into consideration that probably 8-10 of the students were sleeping... I still think those are surprisingly low numbers. Upon asking the question... you would have thought I asked who in the room had logged onto a pornography site recently. Students appeared embarrassed to admit they checked what was out there on themselves.
Fact is.... If you're not paying attention to the
personal brand that is being developed about you online, you are really missing the boat, and the longer you wait to develop these habits, the harder it is going to be to change that
brand if it's inaccurate.
All progressive companies are utilizing the internet in their candidate sourcing process, as well as internally for performance management and to screen employees. Individuals are using search engines to form an opinion about people to network with, friends, coworkers, etc. If you ever used an web dating site and not Googled the person you met to see what else you can find, you are REALLY taking a chance!
More and more career portfolio sites are surfacing to help individuals better tell their stories and have an impact on their
personal brand. I can certainly be accused of being biased, but over the next 3-5 years, I believe you will be left behind by your peers if you are not developing the habits of true "Career Management". Of course I also believe
CareerScribe is one of the best tools out there to help you do that now!
Happy Branding!!!!
In a recent career class at Indiana University, a student asked an interesting question. This student was concerned that an employer would actually take the time to review their professional portfolio on
CareerScribe.
My response is
"Well... do you think an employer is taking the time to review your resume among hundreds?"
It's not the first time that I've heard this comment. Unfortunately, what I've come to find is the question is really less about whether they believe an employer would want to have additional details, proof, artifacts and a video introduction to screen employees...
OF COURSE THEY DO! The reality is that most people just dread the idea of having to spend more time documenting their career accomplishments, successes, etc. Do a video?..... "
I hate the way I look on video." They are hoping they can just get by with that boring resume!
Fact is.... you can get by with just a resume. Resumes will not be going away anytime soon. The question to ask yourself is do I want to be competing for jobs with an archaic, dying tool like a resume, or do I want to give myself an edge by using progressive tools that help me tell my story through a free online portfolio... and make my best first impression through video? Give a potential employer the opportunity to get some real insight on you, without asking them to invest 4-10 hours of time scheduling, and bringing you in for an interview, which most of the time doesn't result in a fit.
My final comment.... as your "
Career Personal Trainer".... Don't be so lazy, and get out there and compete in the top 10% of your peer group who are using these technologies to present themselves and their personal brand in a compelling way.
There seems to be a real opportunity out there for recruiting and staffing firms to reinvent the recruiting process for their customers. The old processes that have been around for years, which involve presenting resumes to companies for their open positions, is dying a slow death... significantly increased by the events of the past year.
The staffing firm of the future, must be able to present their candidates in a much more progressive way than resumes, if they want to beat their competition by helping their clients screen employees more efficiently. Thinking you have a better database of candidates than the next guy, and that is your competitive edge.... has been over for at least 3 years now.
Staffing firms should be considering the use of candidate profiles, which isn't entirely a new concept.... but the content and look/feel of the profile has changed. Profiles should likely include portfolios of documentation that prove the accomplishments, experience, education and certifications a candidate has. Furthermore, video should be considered to introduce presence, professionalism, passion, enthusiasm, etc. A profile might also include background verification and personality/skills assessments. Essentially, you are eliminating a first interview through the use of a professional portfolio.
CareerScribe offers this type of candidate evaluation tool. An application that allows professionals to develop an online personal brand.
Video is a great tool for personal branding. If you're not using it currently, you should and likely will. So better to start getting comfortable with it now.
Speaking as a former Accountant and CPA, I know video is scary for 75% of the professionals out there. You see it all the time on the internet,
YouTube, etc., everyone makes it look so easy, but you get paralyzed before even explore it.
Most phones or even cameras have decent forms of video quality now. Quality that is perfectly acceptable for use in your professional portfolio, etc. Other options include webcams,
flip videos ($129 or less at Best Buy) and personal digital video cameras. I often try to steer professionals away from overdone, overedited videos. Being yourself, or at least your professional self (so know kegger party videos), is usually more effective these days when using video for personal branding or video job interviews.
Since it is highly recommended that you keep these personal, professional video introductions to no more than a minute or so, it is frequently possible to do the video in one take, with a little practice. However, using simple video editors, like
MS Windows Movie Maker... which comes standard on most computers, can be a lot of fun and not take a lot of time. If you're video is much longer than 1 to 1.5 minutes, you risk not having it viewed during the online employee screening process.
When you think about your opportunity to make
YOUR BEST FIRST IMPRESSION through the use of video, or you can just follow the heard by continuing to send resumes, I don't understand why everyone isn't using video.
This morning, CareerScribe presented at an event called "Branding Yourself". The name is pretty self explanatory. It's exciting to see that many people are becoming aware of the concept of personal branding. Although, when the attendees were asked why they were there, of the 120 in attendance, most were there because they were involved in an Indianapolis Job Search.
Unfortunately, it seems that most people associate personal branding with resumes and looking for a job. Personal branding is something that needs to develop over time, it's not something you do in a day, week or even a month. Brands are not developed overnight! It should be viewed as a long process. Be deliberate about the brand you want to develop, and add something every week to your story, and eventually over time, your brand will develop.
There are many free online portfolios that can help you accomplish the organization associated with this process. Selecting the best tool, like
CareerScribe, is an important part of the process. The right tool should allow you to tell your story with words, documents, photos and video. It should be easy to navigate, and it should allow you to share your story, or professional portfolio, with others.
Yesterday I had the unpleasant experience of realizing I set Alarm #2, instead of Alarm #1 on my clock. So 5 seconds after the alarm went off, and I realized it's already 7:30am, when I have an 8:00am meeting, that's 30 minutes away.
The dreaded nightmare of oversleeping.... only to be outdone by the nightmare of showing up to class, and there's a big test that you haven't studied for.
Then the panic and questions set in :
How did this happen?
What could I have done differently?
So now what?
How do I avoid this ever happening again?
All great questions, much like the questions one asks themselves when they find out they are losing their job. This scenario has been playing out all too often over the past year as professionals realize they've made mistakes in managing their careers, and they aren't prepared to market themselves in a competitive job market.
There isn't anything you can do now to change the past, but you can deal with the situation at hand as best you can, and look for better ways to market yourself, such as free online portfolios. Online employee screening is becoming much more popular as a means of candidate sourcing, so if you don't have a professional presence online, you are likely being overlooked for some opportunties.
More importantly, recognize there are habits and skills you can be developing now, so that you aren't in this situation again. Begin developing a career portfolio, and maintain it routinely so you can avoid the panicked feeling of waking up late for your meeting.
It's seems that it has become more and more acceptable to arrive late to a meeting.
I am as guilty as the next person, maybe more, when it comes to showing up on time.... all the time. I find myself easily distracted by "one more call", "one more email", etc. I may have started out with every intention of being 10-15 minutes early, but that last call or task I decided to take on, always seems to make me 3-5 minutes late.
Most of the people I talk with, seem to be ok with being 5-10 minutes late for a meeting, but there are certainly a number of more traditional/"old schoolers", who will significantly devalue you, if for no other reason than you arrived late. This especially seems to be the case in the Indianapolis job search market.
So here are the rules I've established :
1) If you're going to be late, even 1 minute, call or text message the person you are meeting, and let them know you're running a few minutes behind. In return, the person you are meeting should wait with no hard feelings.
2) If you are running more than 10 minutes behind, call and text message if they don't answer. Also send an email because most seem to get emails instantaneously on phones anymore. Be very apologetic, and don't make excuses. Give the person you are meeting the option to reschedule, and expect it if you are running more than 15 minutes behind.
3) Finally, if you are the one waiting, and you haven't received any calls, texts or emails from the person you are supposed to be meeting with. Wait for 10 minutes, try calling them and leave a message. Anything over 15 minutes late, you are free to go with no guilt on your part.
NEVER be late to an interview. Being on time speaks to enthusiasm, organization and planning in the candidate evaluation process. Interviewers will use this to screen employees.
Of course.... I'm writing this blog while I'm waiting on someone that is now nearly 30 minutes late with no call. I think I'll leave!
For awhile now, I've been telling professionals that doing a good job managing your career is like dieting and excercise. No one can argue that you should be doing it, but unfortunately, our educational system is only now starting to incorporate(require) students to learn some of the very basic skills/habits, such as maintaining a career portfolio as a routine.
State workforce development offices are starting to recognize the importance of these skills. Realizing it's only a bandaid to provide resume services and certain types of training. These things may help the person at the time, but you're not equipping them with skills to help them throughout their career. Professional portfolios are the way to go when it comes to candidate evaluation.
The bad news is, like dieting and excercise, many of the career management skills and habits being taught to professionals with 5-10+ years of experience, likely won't stick. The employment pool has been so negatively reinforced with their habits, i.e. "I only update my resume when I'm unhappy or been told I'm going to lose my job", that it's very tough to unlearn that way of thinking, and realize the good career management habits can be fun. Documenting your successes and accomplishments, which ultimately creates more value and can help you further your career, should be fun. If you own a house, doesn't it make you feel good when the house has been freshly painted, you've planted flowers, mulched and just mowed the lawn? All these things add value, and you feel that inside.
Hopefully, the current employment market issues will translate into long term changes to our education system and the services our tax dollars provide through regional workforce offices.
I recently was involved on a panel for the local HR association, and was pleasantly surprised by the level of interest they seem to have in social media and the future of candidate sourcing.
I've experienced a lot of apprehension on the part of HR professionals in recent years to the uses of social spaces, video job interviews, etc. to screen employees. Many have used it for quite a while, many are just beginning to use it more, and still many act as if it is just a passing fad.
Concerns about discrimination claims seem to top the list of concerns around the risks of such tools and processes, but I feel the issue is one more of fear. Fear of change, fear of new technology and processes that have seemed to take place overnight. Just 5 years ago, no one was talking about videos, tweets, Facebook and LinkedIn. Let alone the cataclysmic changes that have taken place in the past 6-12 months, which have forced millions of people into the web social world.
3-5 years might as well be overnight in the HR world, when many of the recruitment processes and underlying fundamentals have remained essentially the same for 20 years.
However, I have seen many positive things in the past few months that lead me to believe the HR profession will embrace these changes as a whole. However, there will always be a pocket of people praying it all goes away!
Timeline based, career portolfios will be the future resume, used by employers to screen employees. Maintaining the details and artifacts of your education, training, experience and accomplishments, paint a much clearer and genuine picture of who you are.
So what types of events should I be including in my professional portfolio.... along with what documentation?
Here is a list to consider :
- Educational events (attachments might include diplomas, transcripts or a class syllabus)
- Training/seminar events (attachments might include certificates, course outlines and/or advertising material for the event)
- Employment events (attachments might include offer or resignation letters, performance reviews, emails noting a promotion or merit increase)
- Accomplishments (attachments could be wide and varied, but consider pdfs, jpgs, spreadsheets, emails, letters, videos, etc)
The best way to maintain a career portfolio is 1 event at a time. Try to look back every week, and ask yourself "What happened this week that might add value to my career" and document it while you remember!!!! As you come across old events, upload the digital files or scan the hardcopy documents.
This is the proof of your achievements and accomplishments that you can never find when you need it.
In the Indianapolis Job Search market, many people are asking me what questions they can ask to help insure the company they are interviewing with is stable.
First thing to know, is there aren't ANY guarantees. A company may appear to do well, and then something changes. Life cycles of companies are cyclical, and there will be ups and downs. Just because some bad events seem to occur within a year of you starting a job, doesn't mean you were lied to, or the facts were misrepresented.
However... that being said, there are certainly several things to ask a company, that might help you measure stability. The important thing to keep in mind when asking these "tougher" questions, is to wait until after the candidate evaluation process is over. You may even want to wait until they have made you an offer, but you haven't accepted.
1) Ask "Has there been any significant events in the companies recent history (3 years), either positive or negative, that I should be aware of? Anything that I will hear about after starting work, and will feel silly for not knowing."
2) Ask "What is the outlook for the company in the next 1 year, 3 years, 5 years. Are they considering buying other companies, strategic mergers or sale of any company divisions or assets."
3) Ask "How leveraged is the company right now? How much debt does the company have, and where does it come from.... banks, private equity, owners, etc." Keep in mind, if the company isn't public, you may not get a complete answer on this one.
4) If the person you are interviewing with, has been with the company for less than 3 years, ask "After accepting your position with the company, did you discover anything about the company's culture, or way of doing business, that was a surprise to you?"
These are a few questions that can help you collect some additional information, that may help in your decision.
However, reading a person's body language, eye contact, voice inflections, etc., may give you more insight to the answers you are really looking for.
On Monday, March 23, we were excited to announce some significant enhancements to the look and feel of CareerScribe. This announcement was placed on the Business Wire and received a great response. Two days later, we have well over 40 websites, social media portals and search engines that have picked up the story.... very exciting!
Here are a few examples :
Yahoo - Finance
MarketWatch
Morningstar
Reuters
CareerScribe offers a career management tool for professionals that includes a free online portfolio and the ability to use video to introduce yourself. For companies,
CareerScribe has created a tool that allows companies to view these online portfolios, which adds much deeper insight to the candidate evaluation process, and eliminates bad interviews that should never happen. In addition, companies can develop a more meaningful applicant tracking system.
I'm frequently told by people that they don't like the way they look on video, so they'd rather not do it. My answer to them is....... so don't!
Unfortunately, the reality is your competition might be. So like a dating site, you are much less likely to be considered, if you're not willing to introduce yourself through video.
Many companies are turning to video as part of their candidate sourcing process, and if they haven't, they will be thinking strongly about it because of the abundance of talent out there right now. Beyond video introductions, companies will likely incorporate a video job interview as well. This involves the company asking for your response, in a video format, to specific questions they ask.
CareerScribe.com is a tool that was designed with the concept of video introductions and video job interviews in mind. More importantly, CareerScribe.com also allows you to develop a free online portfolio as well.
I recently read a post regarding "10 Great Sites for Resume Building" (
http://mashable.com/2009/03/18/resume-building/).
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Utilizing tools that go beyond a resume, and not only tell a story, but add credibilty and genuineness through the physical documentation and artifacts of your accomplishments is the key. In addition, utilizing video to make your best first impression is also a differentiator. Not video resumes, but brief video introductions... think of it as a mini video job interview.
Anyone who has reviewed hundreds/thousands of resumes to screen employees, knows that very little insight can be obtained from a resume, as compared to a virtual, timeline based career portfolio, along with video introductions. This is the future "resume"........
Check out CareerScribe (www.CareerScribe.com) for a way to WRITE and SHARE your story. It's a free online portfolio service for individuals.
I can't guarantee anyone that CareerScribe will land you a job, but I can guarantee you will get considered over your competition that is just submitting a resume.