Article courtesy of Recruiting Blogswap
Author: Kevin Donlin
We humans have been farming for about 12,000 years, which accounts for only 0.5% of our time on earth as a species, according to an article on the University of Reading web site.
That means, for most of our ancestors — 99.5% of them — hunting and gathering was how they got food.
Now. Wouldn’t you agree that farming is a more reliable way to feed your family than hunting, especially if the latter involves trying to bag a mastodon?
All of which has something very important to do with your career.
It’s this: Almost everyone looking for work thinks of themselves as a job hunter. (You, too?)
Most people hunt for employers and gather job leads, day in and day out.
That’s all they know. That’s how they’ve always done it. Maybe for 99.5% of their working history.
But wouldn’t it be an evolutionary leap forward to become a job farmer instead? Especially when looking at your career from a long-term perspective?
With that in mind, here are four questions to help you think like a job farmer and cultivate new employment opportunities as reliably as new crops of corn or oats …
1) Could you start or participate in a blog that gets noticed by employers?
According to an article by LaTina Emerson on RedOrbit.com, one way that today’s recruiters are filling positions is by searching industry-specific blogs for intelligent, informed candidates.
Why not be among the lucky few who get found — and hired?
If you write a high-quality blog, or post thoughtful comments on somebody else’s, you greatly increase your chances of getting called by recruiters with job opportunities.
2) Could you join a professional association, like Toastmasters or the Chamber of Commerce, that lets you showcase your expertise among movers and shakers?
Beyond simply joining a local work-related organization, you should stand out and get noticed.
How? Offer to help with a committee, give a lunch-and-learn presentation on your area of expertise, or take on some other leadership role.
Why? Because almost every professional organization in every city is in need of new leaders. And employers almost always prefer to hire leaders over followers.
To find lists of associations near you, Google the phrase: “professional associations YOUR CITY” or “professional organizations YOUR CITY.”
3) Could you get found by employers and recruiters on social networking sites?
Whether you’re a member of LinkedInHerbie Rides Again movie , Facebook, MySpace — or all three — you can make it easier for hiring managers to find you by including the right words in your online profile.
Here’s why: You may think of yourself as an Account Executive and define yourself that way in your LinkedIn profile, for example, but a recruiter searching for a Sales Rep might never find you, even though you’re a perfect match for the job.
Solution? Embed all relevant job titles and skills in your profile.
If you can’t find a way to do it naturally, simply include a sentence like this: “Similar job titles to what I’ve done include Sale Rep, Sales Representative, Account Executive, and Marketing Coordinator.”
As long as you’re accurate in your descriptions and don’t go overboard, this tactic can get you found by recruiters searching LinkedIn or other social networking sites.
4) Could you join a community service organization and meet local leaders in a setting that lets your altruistic side shine through?Fire Down Below movie download
This is different from joining professional associations, in that community service organizations are not likely to be connected with business. But that doesn’t mean you can’t turn your volunteer efforts into networking contacts that lead to a new job.
Many of the most influential people in any community volunteer for soup kitchens, church boards of directors, youth mentoring programs, and the like. Why not join one and work alongside the kind of people you need to
meet for long-term career success?
To find lists of possible groups to join, Google the phrase: “volunteer opportunities YOUR CITY” or “community organizations YOUR CITY.”
His project, We Feel Fine, scans new blog entries for “I feel” or “I am feeling” statements and records the sentence. It then categorizes its findings by feeling and notes the geographic location, the gender of the writer, the age, etc.
“The result is a database of several million human feelings, increasing by 15,000 - 20,000 new feelings per day. Using a series of playful interfaces, the feelings can be searched and sorted across a number of demographic slices, offering responses to specific questions like: do Europeans feel sad more often than Americans? Do women feel fat more often than men? Does rainy weather affect how we feel? What are the most representative feelings of female New Yorkers in their 20s? What do people feel right now in Baghdad? What were people feeling on Valentine’s Day? Which are the happiest cities in the world? The saddest? And so on.”
This project is a very interesting idea, but I think it’s a bit narrow-minded to say this is how the world is feeling. There are so many people in the world who still don’t use the computers and not all of us self-publish. The data for this project is pulled from English
language blogs and it excludes how bloggers are feeling who write in Mandarin, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, or any of the 6,700 living languages in the world.
The idea though is fascinating and I’m excited to see what else Jonathan has up his sleeve.
People want to do meaningful work - not just the new generation entering the workforce, but everybody. Don’t tell Gen Y’s a crappy job is a good job, just be upfront with them and make some compromises like giving them mentoring for some of the grunt work they’ll have to do (what other generations consider is paying dues).
Flexibility. Don’t expect them to work from 9-5. Manage by results.
Productivity. Time management is a subject they are very well versed in and many operate in a mode of productivity that other generations don’t get. Penelope talks about the most read blogs by Gen Y are those about personal productivity. It’s all about David Allen and his book “Getting Things Done.” Just because they can listen to their Ipod and instant message at work doesn’t mean they’re not productive.
Do you agree? What is your company doing to make a Gen Y friendly workplace?
In Argentina, I don’t have the luxury of paying by debit card for everything. More often than not, I need cash for a majority of my daily transactions. For the financially organized, tracking cash spending is a chore. It implies I’ll waste a lot of precious time waiting for the vendor to write out a receipt and then trying to read the illegible handwriting to manually enter it into my personal finance tracking system when I discover it again. Forget trying to get my husband to do this too!
On my quest to improve productivity (and sanity), I stumbled upon this recent post on Lifehacker about a Tweet What You Spend. Rescued!
You can register a new Twitter account (make it private) and then you follow Tweet What You Spend, it follows you back and you complete the registration process. After registration, you track your spending through Tweets. With your mobile phone at the point of purchase, you use your Twitter account to sent the details of your purchase and the service uploads it to your cash journal to be categorized and later imported into whatever personal finance software you use.
Here is the quick tutorial video to get you set up.
Whether you’re negotiating a pay raise or a salary for a new job, money is never an easy topic. Even more difficult is approaching your boss for a raise or starting salary discussions in a rough economy when companies are slashing budgets and pinching pennies.
If you’re asking for a raise, pay attention to #2. Be prepared to demonstrate your goal performance and on-the-job accomplishments. It’s your best bargaining tool.
From an employer’s perspective, a manager wants to know if a staff member is asking for more money, he can back it up with evidence of accomplished goals and continuous improvement. Don’t expect your manager to be tracking it for you. “I deserve more because my expenses are rising” or because “I’ve been here for a year” is completely irrelevant, yet so many people take this approach.
Simply put: The outcome is much more likely to be favorable if you make a case for yourself.
For new job salary discussions, it’s most important to know your market value, especially if you’ve been working with the same company for a long time. Check out sites like Glassdoor.com, Salary.com, or Payscale.com to get a general idea (but remember these aren’t always completely accurate) or ask a recruiter. PR Week publishes an annual salary report (subscription only) that may be helpful.
You’ll have to watch the video for Jeff’s comments, but here are his five secrets in a nutshell:
Make sure your resume has the keywords that match the job description.
Apply to no more than two jobs at the company (more than that is a sign of desperation or being careless in your jobs search).
Use social networks. Recruiters want to present people who are known and respected in their field. Your chances of being contacted are much higher with an online presence.
Be prepared. Research! Know who the recruiter is when called and the job you applied for.
Cover letters are so 1990. Recruiters don’t need them.
My thoughts and personal recruiter secrets:
Just say no to separate cover letters (and yes to clear and concise ones). I don’t read separate cover letters unless it’s a “career changer” (someone looking to go from let’s say, finance to PR) and I usually can’t place someone looking to make a huge career change. I do read short and concise cover letters embedded in the email. Considering the amount of information us recruiters process in a day about different people careers, we’re left with the attention span of a fly. Your job is to not just tell me how great you are, but show me why you are the best candidate for my position - quickly.
Don’t be a voicemail rambler. If you call to introduce yourself rather than an email intro, make sure the message portrays confidence and tell me a little bit about yourself A good rule for voicemail: 30 seconds, no more. Start your name and phone number in the beginning and again at the end. Many voicemail systems allow you to listen to the voicemail again. If it sounds off, re-record. Remember, this is the first impression.
Be easy to work with.Saw IV move Be available during the normal work day (even if only by appointment). There’s a limited pass for cancellations, rearrangements, and special treatment.
Don’t be an information hound unless you intend to make a career move for the right opportunity. Asking who the company is and getting information with no intention of seriously evaluating it is considered bad form.
This blog is to share my recruiting experiences and discuss thoughts on the job market, PR industry and technology.
I'm an entrepreneur, business developer and recruiter.
![[del.icio.us]](http://lindsayolson.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://lindsayolson.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://lindsayolson.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://lindsayolson.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Twitter]](http://lindsayolson.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/twitter.png)
![[Email]](http://lindsayolson.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
His project, 
This blog is to share my recruiting experiences and discuss thoughts on the job market, PR industry and technology.
Alison Kenney is an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience.
