This week’s post on US News & World Report.
We often hear about how job seekers can use social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter to their advantage. But what’s sometimes overlooked is the biggest network of them all: Facebook.
We think of Facebook as a way to connect with friends, not necessarily hiring managers or employers. But with over 500 million active users, Facebook is useful for professional networking, too.
1. Follow your target companies on Facebook. Some companies, such as Ernst & Young and Ford Motor Company, have special Facebook pages specifically for recruiting. You might find out about job opportunities on their Facebook pages quicker than finding their postings on a job board or their own career portal. It’s also a place to learn more about the company culture and ask the recruiting department questions about the hiring process. In smaller companies, the page may even be monitored by the decision makers, putting you in direct contact with the person who offers opportunities or hires.
2. Contact employers directly. Facebook allows users to send messages directly to other users even if you aren’t friends with them, which is especially useful if you can’t find their contact information anywhere else. Be careful with this approach though. Some people only want to communicate with their “real friends” on Facebook. Before contacting someone, make sure you’ve done your homework, and send a personalized message making sure to let them know who you are and why you are contacting them.
Read 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 on US News & World Reports On Careers blog: 7 Ways to Use Facebook for Your Job Search
This is a guest post by John Durfee.
I was one of those kids who had a small platoon of Gi Joe Figures in his toy box. Every squad had their own Duke to lead them, with a bevy of duplicate Joes to fit each combat role. I had a squad of Roadblocks to lay down suppressive fire, while a group of Snake eye ninjas would stealthily jump behind enemy lines. I loved everything about the military. It came as no surprise, as my father and grandfather were both Marines, and my uncles and older cousins were in other branches of the armed forces. Right after high school I went to my local recruitment office and enlisted. Shortly afterward, 9/11 happened and I was activated. I was successful in the military and at the end of my third deployment, I had reached the rank of Gunnery Sergeant and was married with a little girl. When my term of service ended after my third deployment I made the choice to not re-enlist. My time with the military came to its conclusion; it was now time to enlist into the white-collar workforce.
It felt like I was starting at square one. I had satisfied my life goal to be a soldier – now what? With no obvious marketable skills under my belt, and a family to support, the walls started closing in. I could clear a room and stay calm in a heavy fire fight, those were absolutes that I could work around. But all the uncertainties and responsibilities came rushing in on me, and that was something I was not familiar with. It was terrifying and stressful. Two months passed in this state, applying to entry-level jobs and not hearing back. I even thought of re-enlisting for another term of service as a few of my friends did who were in a similar situation.
In the end, it was the love and support of my family that pulled me through. They helped me realize that a “Gunny” like myself has a plenty to put on the table. Instead of looking for entry-level jobs and selling myself short, I had the skills of a leader and manager. I’ve led and walked with the strongest, fastest, slowest, and sometimes weakest, men and women and I made sure they performed their best and returned safely. I can motivate, coordinate and lead, and that’s no small feat in today’s economic battlefield.
There are other skills that all armed servicemen and women have, it’s forged into them through years of service and training. Integrity, loyalty, perseverance, discipline are now a part of who I am. Like I said, there was a short time when I was questioning myself. I had the integrity to forge on ahead despite my fear. I pulled myself together and fell back to my training. Loyalty to my country and the Corps became loyalty to my wife and daughter. Failure was not an option, as they needed me to succeed. Perseverance through PT and combat translated into perseverance in my job search, to fight through the uncertainty and drudgery of the day-to-day applications and dead ends, to keep meeting my daily goals everyday. Discipline required to keep my platoon and myself in exquisite readiness turned into discipline to not procrastinate and to come into each interview like it was my first, not my 30th.
A few weeks after my turnaround. I landed a job as a marketing manager. As a leader, I can continue to utilize my training and trained virtues by instilling the same into my employees – making my company much more successful. These principles helped me survive and thrive through my time in the military and continue to do so in the civilian world.
As for finding organizational support, the singular best veterans employment resource I found was the Tip of the Arrow Foundation. They were the first organization dedicated entirely to military women and men like me who are looking to enter the job market but have known only the military, and thus have little or no civilian work experience. They have volunteers standing by to help any military person who needs them and these folks are good at what they do.
These professional job-getters help through every step, from creating a resume to interview preparation all the way to helping you keep your job and advance quickly.
John is an Operation Freedom War veteran and a manager for Airsplat, the nation’s largest retailer of Airsoft Guns including Spring Airsoft Rifles.
This is a post by PR columnist, Alison Kenney.
As a P.R. pro you know the challenge of writing a successful email pitch that stands out and convinces its recipient to take action. The last thing you want is for your email to be ignored or labeled spam.
I’ve come up with 7 questions P.R. pros should ask themselves before hitting the send button on their next email pitch:
- Is this a job for PR? Sometimes P.R. is tasked with something – say, launching a new company — that requires involvement from many other departments. In these cases it’s important to consider what advertising and other marketing efforts are being done to support the P.R. effort as it can affect the angle and tone of your pitch and provide you with perspective to make the right “ask” in your pitch.
- Is email the best way to tell this story? The answer could be “yes” if you have a reasonable number of targets. Surveys of reporters have found that the media prefers email as the #1 way to communicate with P.R. but they are also sticklers for email that’s “on target.” Do you have the resources to draft well-researched, personalized email pitches to a wide number of media targets?If the answer to #2 is “no,” then is there a better way to “go wide” with this story? Alternatives to sending individual emails could be putting your story in press release form and using a wire service or using social media tools to tell your story.
- Do I need to create a relationship with the media to tell this story? The truth is that not every reporter wants a relationship – sometimes they just want to get that product snapshot for their spring column and be done with it. So…No, you don’t have to “build relationships” or know everything about a writer or follow them on social media before sending them an email pitch. Notice, however, I didn’t say that you get a pass on researching the media and targeting your pitch to the right audience. Especially if your story isn’t a no-brainer or if your client doesn’t have any brand recognition, then, yes, you really need to put in the effort to research and find an angle to tell and sell your story.
- How comfortable am I with the accuracy of my media list? How well do you know the contacts on your list – when was the last time you read their work? Did you research the names yourself? If you bought the list or built it from a database, did you verify the names, contact information and beats? Yes, this is time-consuming work, but it is critical to the success of your pitch.
- Will the recipient recognize me? Of course, sending email pitches “cold” can be tougher than reaching out to people who already know you or who are expecting to hear from you. Some P.R. pros publish an opt-in newsletter in which they provide insider tips, introduce relevant sources and plant seeds for stories to recipients interested in a specific industry. Others bring in partners with specific industry experience if they’re lacking it themselves.
- Will the recipient think this is spam? You’re not a mind-reader and can’t foresee every reaction but you can proof-read your pitch before sending it to gauge whether it’s personalized and relevant. You can also do small tests to see which messages resonate with particular audiences and create different versions of the pitch that highlight different key messages.
Alison Kenney an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience. She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries. She writes a bi-monthly PR column on LindsayOlson.com. You can find her at www.kprcommunications.com. Learn more about Alison Kenney.
PR industry hiring is heating up. I’ve had several people comment about how many calls they are getting in the past few months about jobs. My recruiting firm has been inundated with new opportunities. Yay!
Someone recently told me about how it was becoming difficult to manage the time to take phone calls from recruiters about specifics positions she was contacted about mainly through LinkedIn. She wanted to know how to respond and keep the lines of communications open without putting them off. So that’s what I wrote about for my US News & World Report post last week – Tips for Working with a Recruiter. I hope it helps!
An except from my US News & World Report On Careers blog post last week:
Rejections are an unavoidable reality during a job search. You’ll talk to many companies before you find the right fit. It’s discouraging, especially when you thought you had the job and you’re surprisingly passed up without reason or feedback. It’s okay to be disappointed, but set a limit on how long you’ll sulk, and then move on.
An important part of your job search will require you to evaluate yourself. While you won’t win them all, one of the most important aspects is to recognize the possibility that there may be something you can change, and if so, be open to it.
Recruiters can all attest to the frustration that some job seekers convey in their initial contact. Hiring managers are keen at sniffing out negativity, desperation, bad attitudes, and emotional imbalance. Simply being aware of the negativity and making a concentrated effort to focus on the positive can completely turn around a job search gone bad.
Read the seven tips on the full post at: Ways to Stay Positive During Your Job Hunt
This is a post by PR columnist, Alison Kenney.
What is going on? When did P.R. start meaning “please refrain”?
I mean, I’m used to hearing grouchy editors rag on P.R. tactics during their keynote speeches. I smile politely and wait to hear their advice on how best to pitch them if I really want to get coverage for my clients.
But what used to be a low background din has become a maelstrom of ill-will towards the P.R. profession.
The latest influential personality to rant against P.R. people is Forrester’s Josh Bernoff, whose biggest beef is the unsolicited emails he receives
Yes, Bernoff could ignore or delete those emails, but most likely he’s bothered by their persistence and is trying to do something about it. Apparently, just unsubscribing doesn’t always cut it, and sometimes there is no unsubscribe feature (such as on a press release). Which led me to wonder how P.R. firms get around the CAN-SPAM act? (Bernoff counters via Twitter that “It’s not clear that PR emails are covered by FTC. Plus, their CAN SPAM enforcement is weak. This is an ethical issue, not legal.”)
It also led me to wonder why unsolicited email is so offensive from P.R. people. I receive hundreds of unsolicited emails too — from sales people at a range of different firms. But I don’t post rants on each individual sender the way these folks do:
So what do we do? Many folks chastise their comrades and take the “hey, we’re better than that” attitude. Some use it as a chance to kiss up to the cranky reporters with a “thanks for pointing that out.” PRSA tries to stay above the fray; it’s response to Josh Bernoff’s post “sounds like it was written by a P.R. professional” according to Bernoff (via Twitter).
What do you think? Is P.R. in need of some good P.R. for itself? If so, how is P.R. doing well and what are we doing right? Let’s start that conversation for a change.
Alison Kenney an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience. She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries. She writes a bi-monthly PR column on LindsayOlson.com. You can find her at www.kprcommunications.com. Learn more about Alison Kenney.
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.
