REVIEW: The Twitter Job Search Guide (Whitcomb, Bryan and Dib, 2010)

November 29, 2010

As someone who devours social media news, trends and interaction on a daily basis, I was intrigued by the title of a recently published book The Twitter Job Search Guide: Find a Job and Advance Your Career in Just 15 Minutes a Day. Written by Susan Whitcomb, Chandlee Bryan and Deb Dib, the guide promises to help you easily and effectively:

  • Access more than half a million jobs listed on Twitter
  • Build and leverage your professional network
  • Get the inside scoop.

So is it worth the read?  

 I recommend it highly for any newbie to social media, especially Twitter. Section 1 focuses on getting you acquainted with Twitter and setting up a basic profile. I especially liked their baker’s dozen of job-hunting tweeter success stories complete with their Twitter handles for easy following and modeling.

The tactical, step-by-step instructive style of The Twitter Job Search Guide makes it a useful companion for creating your social branding strategy and implementing their tools to create a “Twit-Fit Resume” or a cover letter in only ten tweets. There’s even a chapter devoted to helping both introverts and extroverts find their Twitter identity. There’s tons of information in this guide book and much of it’s actionable to reach your own job search or career networking goals.

The authors demystify Twitter and suggest recruiters and career gurus you can follow to get started. They also feature third-party Twitter resources to monitor followers, search Twitter, and optimize your Twitter experience.

The intention of the book is noble and I think it achieved the author’s stated goals: “This book is for everyone” and “Regardless of your background or circumstances, the principles covered in this book will work for you: they are universal.”

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Posted by Social Maven

More tweets for you @jffa_jobs

October 11, 2010

If you are looking for a job, or you just want to follow the latest job posts, follow our newest Twitter account @jffa_jobs; it’s a direct feed from the JobsFreeForAll.com website and will include posts from across the U.S. and Canada.

If you’re only interested in following job postings for your area, we also have regional Twitter accounts. All fifty American states and the Canadian provinces each have their own account. See the complete list on JobsFreeForAll.com.

For those seeking industry news or updates from our blog, follow our B2B Twitter account @JobsFreeForAll. Our CEO even has his own account @jffaBigKahuna.

Happy tweeting.

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Posted by Social Maven

It’s FREE to share

September 20, 2010

Sharing is caring and we’ve added Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn sharing tools into our site design at JobsFreeForAll.com. Simply click on the icons displayed prominently at the top of each of our job detail pages to let the caring begin. (You can still email them, too).

JobsFreeForAll.com Sharing Tools

Everyday – more and more cities across the nation are getting on board with JobsFreeForAll.com and the FREE movement – so there are lots of delicious new jobs to share with your friends and loved ones.

If sharing a blog post is more your speed, then click the permalink to any article and choose the service to which you wish to share.

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Posted by Social Maven

Labor Day an American tradition

September 6, 2010

Traditionally, Labor Day is celebrated in the U.S. on the first Monday in September, a custom that has been followed since the inception of the holiday in 1882 in New York City. It is a day of rest for every American worker.

Americans will flock to their parks, fire up their BBQs and find other amusements to celebrate this day that was founded to honor “the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations”.

Nationwide, colorful celebrations and parades will march on like the Brooklyn Labor Day & West Indian American Day Carnival parade drawing millions of spectators on Labor Day, while other celebrations like the Knoxville, Tennessee “Boomsday” will get an early start a day ahead with the largest Labor Day fireworks show in the nation. 

Motor City will be humming as the Metro-Detroit area has a bevy of Labor Day events including the Detroit International Jazz Festival, Hamtramck Labor Day Festival, and the Arts, Beats & Eats Festival which will maximize the 3-day holiday weekend.

However you choose to celebrate – JobsFreeForAll.com wishes you and yours a safe and happy Labor Day!

For more Labor Day History visit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Day

http://www.dol.gov/opa/aboutdol/laborday.htm

No Labor Day  fireworks in your region? Make your own:
download the iPhone Fireworks app (99 cents), and coordinate your own show to sync with the music in your iTunes library. Pick from 15 locales around the world to set off your own personal display. You can choose your preferred fireworks size and even the amount of sparks.

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Managing the virtual workscape

September 2, 2010

If your company has a good mix of Boomers, Gen-X, Gen-Y and the emerging workforce of Millenials, then it’s very likely that there are pressures and influences on your business to support a virtual workscape – the workplace of your mobile, telecommute and distance workers.

When managing employees from a distance, you need to learn how to keep your team on task, even when you can’t be there to watch over everyone.

Are you realizing the opportunities that come from having employees in different locations? Or do you find it difficult to get the best out of these workers?

Here are three steps to minimize the stress and anxiety of managing a virtual workforce:

1. Set clear productivity expectations.  Make sure both manager and employee understand and agree to what is expected.  Hours on duty, modes of availabilty, reporting methods, and accountability for completed tasks.

2. Keep open lines of communication.  Be sure that there are regularly scheduled meetings with the supervisor or your teams to keep everyone on the same page and the operation running smoothly.  Email, instant messaging, Webcam conferencing, social-tools like Yammer, and the telephone are all viable tools to tether your virtual worker to the office team.  Collaboration software like Basecamp or SharePoint can help manage lists, projects, and knowledge sharing.

3. Provide access. For any distance worker to succeed – the essential tools required to do their job must be readily accessible.  This includes hardware, software, files, documentation, knowledge base and their teammates. Provide a clear outline to your virtual worker about how to handle  access to sensitive files from outside of the office, what paper files are or are not allowed off-premises, and have a clear understanding of how these files will be accessed whether via a hard-drive, laptop, flash-drive or remote log-in.  Make sure you and your virtual worker understand privacy and confidentiality policies that fit your company, before signing up or setting up an online storage service such as Box.net which allows users to easily upload your files and access them from any computer.

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Posted by Social Maven

Why create a jobseeker profile?

August 2, 2010

At JobsFreeForAll.com jobseekers and employers can create an online profile. For the jobseeker this is your way to present yourself to recruiters and stand out from the crowd. Read on for tips and benefits of completing your online profile.

A profile can be used to apply for jobs.
When you apply using your profile, we will send a PDF version to the employer.
A profile helps employers find you.
A profile can be made searchable, so employers can find you. This will increase your chances of getting hired.
A profile is like an online resume.
Resumes take time to download, open, and review. A profile makes it easier for employers to quickly find the best candidate.
Profiles use keywords, just like jobs.
Employers don’t always have time to carefully read all resumes. The right keywords can get an employer’s attention.

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Posted by Social Maven

How do you hire for fit?

June 17, 2010

One proven method is to start with behavior-based interviewing techniques. Résumés can be very misleading, especially if you’re not trained in candidate screening and interviewing. Rather than asking a job candidate to describe her skills and experience, behavior-based interview questions get the candidate to explain a real situation in which she demonstrated her skills and problem-solving abilities. Compare these two questions:

Standard question: “How would you describe your people skills?”
Behavior-based inquiry: “Tell me about a situation in which your supervisor asked you to complete a project that you believed was headed in the wrong direction. How did you deal with it?”

Another valuable hiring tool is a personality assessment. This type of evaluation, which uses various methods to describe personality types, can go a long way to helping you evaluate a candidate’s fit for a particular job function or team, or for your organization in general. Popular assessment tools include the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® and the Rembrandt Portrait.®

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What not to do in social-networking when job hunting

June 14, 2010

So you’ve got a social-network profile or two and want to maximize their use for your job search? Here are the essentials you should know to keep your social etiquette in line with job hunting smarts.

  1. Don’t Overshare. Friends, networking pals and potential recruiters will grow weary of too many tweets or status updates, especially if they are auto-updates from your Mafia Wars or Farmville escapades.
  2. Don’t be “Template.” Try to customize your profile as much as you can. Don’t add animations and blinking gif animations, but do tell your story; be unique.
  3. Don’t under-update. A lack of activity can be just as detrimental as over-updating. Be sure to have some current updates in your news feed. Use them strategically, especially if you’re actively seeking a new career. Choose your updates and conversations wisely.
  4. Don’t add phony friends.  Grow your network carefully.  Understand your goals and the networking group with whom you’re affiliated.  Who you’re connected to on LinkedIn may vary widely from your connections on Facebook.
  5. Don’t auto-DM.  Personal updates and direct messages are far more powerful than setting up an automatic response.  Followers will appreciate the personal attention and won’t feel like you’re spamming them.

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Job Hunting Tips for Recent Graduates

May 31, 2010

The job market has different characteristics when the unemployment rate is high and when it is low. However, some best practices always apply when you’re looking for a job:

1. Know what to put on your resume.

  • When mentioning jobs or internships, list specific responsibilities and include numbers to emphasis the size of the business or tasks involved. (For example, you may state that you assisted a staff of 20 or you were responsible for the distribution of 2,000 newsletters.)
  • If you have no work experience, write down relevant classroom and volunteer experience.

2. Prepare for the interview.

  • Research your potential new employer immediately. Visit their website; Google news  about the company, and talk to people that work there.
  • Practice the interview process by role-playing with a friend.
  • Prepare a typed reference list.
    • Send a thank you letter or email within 24 hours of your interview.

3. Dress for success.  

  • Studies of decision-making behaviors by human resource professionals and hiring managers reveal that most make a decision to hire or not within the first 30 seconds of the interview. This is why dress and grooming is so important.
  • Until you know the corporate culture it’s always a good idea to dress conservatively and professionally. 

4. Use the Internet to network.

  • Join Twitter and connect with professionals in your potential field.
  • Post a message on your wall on Facebook to let friends know you are job hunting. Join and make connections on LinkedIn, an online career network, for professionals.
  • And, of course, there’s JobsFreeForAll.com where people can look for jobs and companies can post job ads for free.

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Posted by Social Maven

Find a Quality Mentor

May 3, 2010

A mentor acts as a positive role model.  They’re the person you want to be in your career, and if you’re matched with the right one, they’ll want you to get there, too.  Follow these tips for finding a mentorship match:

  • Know yourself and what you want out of a mentor.  This is an essential starting point for anyone considering the benefits of finding a mentor.
  • A great mentor will empower you. They will want you to develop your own strengths, beliefs and personality to be the best person you can be.
  • Find someone willing to share.  Your best mentor will be someone trustworthy with a positive outlook who’s willing to share the secrets of the trade. The mentor will impart knowledge, advice and skills that are necessary in your career path.
  • Be sure that they are good listeners.  You want to be able to have an open dialog with your mentor and be able to trust that they are listening to you and your needs as you face career changes and challenges.
  • Ask for referrals. Those who know you or people in the industry may know someone who might take you under their wing.
  • Consider where your mentor sources might be. Your perfect mentor might be part of your management team, from an industry association, your online communities, your clergy and/or congregation, and professors.

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