I’m not much for New Year’s Resolutions.  Personally, I make them, but I remember last year it seemed like half the bloggers swore by them and the other half wished they would go away.

I make resolutions I need to make, but don’t worry if I fall off the wagon.  But there is one resolution I’d like you to think about, and that is that you resolve to get canned in 2009.

Actually, how about if you resolve to get laid off in 2009?

Okay, let’s put this in a better, less-mischeivious light: resolve to do a real, serious job search in 2009.  Whether you are in transition or not.  You need to be prepared.

Here are elements of what you’ll need for your job search in 2009:

• The proper attitude. As a job seeker it’s easy to let bad emotions cloud our ability to perform. I had that happen to me, because i didn’t understand what to expect in my job search.  I know that the emotional roller coaster will set in, but understanding a little about what you might go through can help significantly!
• The right resume. You’ll need it eventually.  As I’ve mentioned earlier, my resume was nice but it kept me out of interviews.  Career Resumes helps you figure out what your resume needs to look like and include, and they work hard to get you into interviews!
• The right networking tools. You hear you are likely to get your next job through your network, right?  What have you done up to this point to make that happen?  You definitely should be using LinkedIn and JibberJobber at a minimum.
• The right techniques. My job search techniques were 99% garbage, and I was too proud to get real help.  The articles I read seemed like they were written on another planet, for another audience… nothing was indepth enough or seemed to work for me.
• ___________ - your suggestion?

What do you think you need to have to successfully navigate your termination?  There will be hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions who are in transition next year… you won’t be alone, but you can be more prepared.

Wednesday we did the LinkedIn and Facebook for Executives webinar - it was almost 90 minutes of material but there was room for questions throughout and at the end of the webinar.  It was cool - the only thing that I dislike is not having enough time for questions.

Here is a bonus followup thought on getting value from LinkedIn - remember, I say LinkedIn is NOT optional if you are a professional… you must be on LinkedIn and you should create a LinkedIn strategy.

Use your email signature

When someone invites you to connect on LinkedIn, or if they ask for an Introduction, or if you answer a question in Answers, etc., you should copy-and-paste your email signature into your message.

Why?  They can click on the link and see your Profile, but that takes effort, and your Profile is long.  Your email signature is probably just a few lines, concisely sharing your value prop (or whatever the most important information is that you want to share).

Here’s my email signature:

–
Jason Alba
::    JibberJobber.com CEO, Author, Speaker
::    http://www.JasonAlba.com
::  ** check out the second edition of my LinkedIn book:
::   http://www.ImOnLinkedInNowWhat.com **
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

I know it’s a pain to open up a new message, copy-and-paste it, but I think it’s worth it and I try and do it about 80% of the time I communicate through LinkedIn.

As I mentioned in the webinar, you can get a LinkedIn Profile Makeover from Career-Resumes for just $200.  Click here to get started.

Yesterday a friend asked me if I have ever used my LinkedIn Profile as a resume.

Of course a LinkedIn Profile is NOT a resume :)  And since I haven’t been in a job search for a while (since I seriously set up my LinkedIn strategy), I haven’t really had a reason to give anyone a resume (well, except for potential investors, who for some reason wanted a resume).

And then, as I was about to respond back to my buddy, I remembered that I had in fact used my LinkedIn Profile as a resume.  I was doing some work with my insurance agent, getting some new services, and he said he would need my resume.  HUH?  My resume?  Okay.

My resume is about three years old, and doesn’t reflect what I’ve done in the last three years (which is a lot).  I could have changed it to include a few new job positions and roles, but it wouldn’t have the affect I would want on the overall document (my value prop has changed in the last three years, and just adding that to my existing resume would not accurately reflect or communicate my brand).

Even though it was for an insurance company, I didn’t want to give a wrong impression.

So I printed off my LinkedIn Profile.  It was the closest thing I had to give, and I did it right there while we were doing paperwork.

I still don’t think a LinkedIn Profile is a resume, but sometimes they can be interchangeable.  Benefits of your LinkedIn Profile include:

• It’s available online, with various privacy controls in place. I don’t believe much in privacy in social environments, but it is cool that you can say “show this to people who are not logged in (public view) and this to people who are.”
• It shows the strength (or weakness) of my network. If I have a bunch of connections (let’s say “a bunch” means over 100) and a number of recommendations (five or more, depending on the size of your network) that says something about me.  Would you rather hire a business development professional who has 3 contacts, or 500+?  Clearly, this doesn’t necessarily indicate whether the person can do the job or not, but it does show the person is (or isn’t) connected.
• LinkedIn Recommendations can be powerful. I printed my LinkedIn Profile and it was about 9 pages, because of the recommendations.  Just looking at all of those mini-stories gave me credibility.  I think 9 pages of that is overkill, and there comes a point where it looks like i might have fished for them, but still, having that many recommendations has to mean something.
• The Summary is cool, while an objective statement is questionable. I’ve heard that objective statements are on their way out (depends on who you ask), but the LinkedIn Summary is definitely not out.  in fact, I encourage you to use up to the 2,000 characters you get to write a well-crafted message to convey who you are and why people should talk to you.  This is your elevator pitch, and if it’s done correctly it can be a very compelling, credible messaging opportunity for you.

Once you use your LinkedIn Profile to get in the door, make a first impression, etc., and you get closer to a job opportunity, make sure you have a real, traditional resume ready… my experiences has been that eventually you’ll need to have it so they can check “submitted resume” off their little checkbox

The first six weeks of my job search I hardly went out of the house. I was too busy being productive, posting my resume on job boards and applying to posted jobs online.

Finally I dragged myself out of the house and reluctantly went to a network meeting that I heard about through my church (it was on the bulletin board).  I was fearful that I’d be the only one there, or I’d be stuck in a room with a bunch of people who had not acheived enough in life to have a real job … I had quite the stereotypes!

That first meeting changed my life. I had beaten myself up for not getting a job, and self-doubt was creeping in.  But in that meeting I met very accomplished professionals and executives who were also down on their luck.  Seeing others in that meeting helped me understand transition as something that happens to us, not something that happens because we are losers.

I grew to need those meetings and the association with other professionals who were doing what I needed to do: network.  It was also cool to talk with people who were in the job search trenches about resume problems, interview questions, etc.  It was an awesome support group, and it wasn’t gloomy at all.

I was enamored with the group.  At one meeting I heard someone talk about a similar network meeting about 25 minutes up the road.  I asked about it, since I hadn’t heard anything about it, and decided to give it a shot.  I was amazed as that network meeting had about 5 times the number of attendees, and there seemed to be a different type of person there.

I quickly sought out other transition network opportunities and found 4 within a one hour drive from my house.  I went to all of them, whenever I could.  Why?  I think it’s critical to not go to just one… here are some thoughts:

1. Your networking needs to be diverse. One network group I met with was located in the heart of entrepreneurial area, and many of the people at those meetings knew about all of the funded startups.  This group was very different from another one, about an hour away, which was right by an Air Force base.  Many who went to those meetings had worked for defense contractors or companies who provided services to the contractors - the difference was amazing.
2. Getting out is healthy. It forced me to dress nicely, put on a smile, and do all the other things you have to do when you meet with people.  I had the opportunity to USE my elevator pitch, evaluate other peoples pitches, and learn from them about what they were doing in their job search.  Staying inside for your entire job search can’t be good for you, physically or emotionally.
3. People need to know who you are. The only way for people to know me, and recommend me to their contacts, is if they know who I am.  Showing up is a significant part of your job search, as you’ll be able to put your name and your brand in front of people on a regular basis.
4. You will have opportunities to help others. Even if your job search isn’t going great (read: you didn’t land your job yet!), you still know more about a job search than some of the new people who walk in the door for the first time.  As you share what you’ve learned, about things that do and don’t work, and serve them as they get started, you should feel better about yourself.  Doesn’t serving others always make you feel better?  And a little dose of “feeling better” is a good thing during a job search!
5. You never know what opportunities might come from the meetings. You might meet someone who just left your target company (and still has great contacts there). You might meet a recruiter who has some positions to fill that you would be perfect for.  Aside from learning about strategies and tactics from others, there’s a bunch of job search intelligence shared at these meetings.
6. You can find people to invite to your Job Search S.W.O.T. team. I love the idea of meeting with a smaller group, perhaps five people, who can help one another on a more intimate level.  This S.W.O.T. team will be an extension of your networking efforts, and can be a great support for you.

It’s great to be a regular at networking meetings, but make sure you are going to as many as you can.  All of the opportunities listed above should be available in as many meetings as you can find.

In my blog post today on JibberJobber I talk about LinkedIn not being optional.  If you are (or want to be) a professional, you need to be on LinkedIn.  Period.

Facebook is optional.  It’s not a requirement in job search or career management… but it’s definitely something you should look at.  Not for necessarily social reasons, but definitely for relationship reasons.

“They” say it’s likely we’ll network into our next job.  There are plenty of networking tools out there, from JibberJobber (to manage your job search and relationships) to LinkedIn (to find and be found), and of course off-line, face-to-face networking.  Here are some reasons to seriously consider a Facebook strategy:

• Many Facebook users are professionals. Let’s assume many Facebook users started a few years ago when they were in college.  Now, some of them have graduated and are in management, decision-maker or influencing decisions.  I recently reconnected with a long-lost friend on Facebook who, to my surprise, is a VP of a major technology company.
• Facebook is a great place to find new network contacts. There is crossover between LinkedIn and Facebook, but in Facebook you’ll be able to meet contacts in a different setting.  Think formal meeting vs. the social gathering after the meeting… you get to see the same person in two different lights, right?  Facebook has a number of social places, like Groups, Pages, etc. where you can learn more about potential professional contacts and perhaps relate to them on a different (more personal) level.
• Facebook helps you reconnect with long-lost friends.  No kidding. A year ago I felt very disconnected from my old high school buddies… I thought we’d never reconnect.  And then one of them Friended me on Facebook.  And some of their Facebook Friends were our mutual high school buddies and now I’m connected to about a dozen of my old buddies.  I’m absolutely amazed at where people ended up and what they are doing for a living.  These are people I have relationships with, and they are in decision-making positions… at the very least, they have professional networks I might want to tap into.

Again, LinkedIn isn’t optional… if you need help with your LinkedIn Profile check out Career Resumes LinkedIn Makeover page, or the announcements I made on JibberJobber blog today.  If you want to get started on Facebook check out my blog (and book) at Facebook Advice dot com.

A few posts ago we announced that Career Resumes does LinkedIn Makeovers.  On December 17th I’ll do a 90 minute webinar on how executives can use LinkedIn (and Facebook) for their job search, and what roles they have in your career management.

Here’s the info for the webinar, you can click on this Experts Connection link to register (it’s only $50):

Date: Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Time: 4:00-5:30 PM Eastern, 1:00-2:30 PM Pacific

Class Description: LinkedIn is the professional network recruiters and hiring managers use to find talent. As important, it is the social network other professionals and executives use to find partners, customers and business relationships. It is not a hotbed of job seekers…rather…decision makers. If you are not using LinkedIn, you are missing out on a viable way to optimize opportunities that are available. This presentation is designed for executives…to help you understand ways to optimize LinkedIn. We’ll cover a number of tactics you can implement immediately to grow your network, nurture individual relationships, while putting your professional brand in front of your immediate and extended network.

Facebook is regarded as a popular hangout for a younger crowd…but that crowd has grown up and started in hiring manager and influencer roles. We’ll explore techniques you can implement on Facebook to network, share your brand and communicate with other professionals.

In this 90 minute session you will learn:

• How to create your LinkedIn profile to increase odds of being found.
• How to best communicate with your LinkedIn network.
• How to use the LinkedIn search features for an executive job search.
• How to use LinkedIn “Answers” as a strategy to enhance your personal brand.
• How to use new LinkedIn features to communicate with network contacts and professionals who should know you.
• The best way to get the “right” recommendations on your LinkedIn profile.
• How to create a compelling Facebook profile.
• Two techniques to find professionals in your field on Facebook.
• Elements of a connection strategy for both platforms.

You can register here. Also, I just learned that Amazon is now shipping the second edition of my LinkedIn book … so if you order it from there you’ll get the newest stuff

I’ve been thinking a lot about the job search and networking during the holiday season.  Fourth of July is pretty easy, as it’s only one day (sometimes a long holiday), but in the United States, from Oct 30 through the beginning of January it’s a little more tricky.

Some people say to not do anything in a job search:

• no one is in the office as this is a time people have to use their vacation before they lose it,
• no one is making hiring decisions, partly because the boss isn’t around,
• people are going to office parties and other things for the fun of it, not for business networking,
• the budget is just about spent, and new expenses can’t get picked up until January (or whenever the fiscal year starts),
• January is really when people are making these decisions, right?

The list goes on.  What does this mean for you, in your job search… should you just put the brakes on, “enjoy” the holiday season, and wait until there is activity?  No sense in going fishing in an empty pond, right?

First of all, if you need a job (if you are an active job seeker), you aren’t going to enjoy the holiday season much if you have NO idea what 2009 will bring, especially wondering when you will get that steady paycheck again.

Second, it may be harder to get to the right person, be on their radar, and get their attention, but if many job seekers aren’t doing it during this month then maybe this is the month you can get the most relationship building done!

Third, hiring decisions ARE made this month.  They are made every day (even weekends, holidays, etc.).  Perhaps things do slow down but it doesn’t mean you should.

Fourth, if you find you are doing what you think you should and are getting no results, take the time to do something else (in your job search).  It might be going back and organizing all of the notes you have, and sifting through previous contacts to see if there is someone you should follow up with.  It might be restrategizing and figuring out another tactic.  Maybe it’s picking up a copy of Dave Perry’s Guerrilla Marketing For Job Hunters book, to get some fresh ideas.  Whatever you do, don’t slow down and lose momentum.

Mike Thomas at The Daily Machete a great great post suggesting what you could do, and when, in a holiday job search… check out the Holiday Season Job Search Calendar.

On Monday we talked about “resume presentation,” where I shared thoughts on how important the actual presnetation on paper is (amount of white space, use of bullets, etc.).  Today we talk about the actual substance.

I’ve met job seekers who want to be  ________ or an ________.  After talking with them for a little bit I realize they just don’t have what it would take to be what they want to be.  Since I’ve been in hiring positions I’ve always been observant to find someone who would be the right addition to my team.  I think it’s important that when you present yourself, even in information gatherings, you always think that the other person might be interested in bring you into their team.

Stay positive, don’t talk bad about other people or projects (even if you are just trying to be “honest”), don’t slouch, give good answers, be interested and interesting, etc.  More on this stuff later.

Let’s get back to the content.  Who are you, and do you have the qualifications to do the job I need done?

I’m always interested in someone who is “high speed, low drag.”  That is, someone who is low maintenance, and high performing.

I want someone who is creative.  I’ve never thought of myself as creative (although people tell me I am… I just compare myself with creative artists, which is not good because I’m not artistic).  If you come to my team, though, I need you to be creative.  Creative people should be lower maintenance than non-creatives (who will probably have to ask how to do things, instead of trying to figure it out on their own).

I also want someone who is curious.  How does this work?  Why do we do things that way?  What if we tried it another way?  Who, what, why, where, how… don’t get me wrong, I don’t want someone who is going to ask me this all the time, but I do want someone who is going to wonder this, and try and figure out the answers.  I once worked with an engineer who was the king of creativity. I would tell people “give him a bucket of sand and a blow torch and he’s build a silicon chip.”  Probably technically impossible, but the idea was that his curiosity ate him up until he figured out solutions.

I want someone to figure out solutions.

This is what I’m looking for in my ideal candidate.  How does this apply to your resume?  Your resume must:

1. (obviously) have all of the factual stuff that traditionally goes on a resume.  Schools graduated from, dates, employment history, job roles, duties, etc.
2. the message that you are the right person for me.

The first is what most people focus on, and what we all think resumes are.  If your resume reads like an “obituary” it’s not going to stand out… it’s going to be just like most of others.  You focused on the wrong thing.

Focus on “the message.”  Why are you the right person for me.  This is where networking comes in, as you could network into my team and ask them what my hot buttons are.  There shouldn’t be any grammar and spelling mistakes, as I’m a stickler for that on a resume.  And of course put in evidence of curiosity and creativity.  That’s just me, maybe the hiring manager you are applying to has different hotspots.

Find out what they are and incorporate those into your marketing material (I mean, your resume).

So this post on substance and resume content took a different twist than what I thought it would take… I originally planned on writing something like “here are the 15 content components of what goes in a resume.”  I didn’t write about that because there’s already a ton of information about that elsewhere… and really, I think it’s more important to talk about your resume as a messaging tool, a marketing tool, rather than just a list of acheivements or employment history facts.

Does your resume properly show your substance as the right person for my team?

Career-Resumes writes resumes.  That’s obvious.  So you got your resume, and it’s great!  What are the rest of your job search tools?  Here are some that I try and keep on-hand:

Your resume is the industry standard document which everyone knows and accepts.    You may make progress in your job search and networking without one, but there will eventually come a time when someone asks for your resume.

Business cards are what professionals share between themselves, isn’t it?  It isn’t common to go to a business networking function and see a bunch of employed professionals passing out resumes, but it is common to see them passing out business cards.  Aren’t you a professional?  Yes, you are… and you should have business cards.  I get mine from VistaPrint, but you can get yours from a ton of different places.

A professional email address. If you can’t spare the $10/year to get your own domain name, and have an email address like me@myname.com, you should make sure you have an email address that looks professional.  Something like Jason@gmail.com is much better than basketball77@gmail.com.  When

A pen. If you are in a job interview, or at a networking event, you shouldn’t have to ask someone else for a pen to write down an email address, phone number, date for an appointment, etc.  You should be prepared with your own pen.  You can ask, of course, and you should if you don’t have one, but having your own tools (pen, in this case) makes it look like you are there on-purpose.

A professional-looking binder that zips. Something you can put documents in, keep a notepad for notes, or just keep your miscellanous stuff.  Walking around a room with a bunch of loose papers just doesn’t look good… keep it all nice and neat.

Gum (or some kind of bad-breath-killer). I like to keep gum on hand (which is hard when my kids figure out where my stash is), but once saw a professional speaker pull out a listerine strip.  You can also get just minty hard candies… anything to help keep bad breath under control. If it’s gum, I usually spit it out before the event (job interview, informational interview, networking event, etc.)

These are some of my tools… what are yours?

A few months ago people where having intellectual debates about whether or not we were in a recession.  Of course we weren’t, as economists have a definition for “recession,” and we clearly hadn’t met the requirements.

Today, the buzz isn’t about “recession,” but it is all about the economy.  From the federal bailout to layoffs at Lehman Bros to the WaMu acquisition, we’re left wondering what’s going on, and what will happen to our careers.  Could we be…. next?  And how will a McCain or Obama presidency affect our careers and our pocketbooks?

No matter what industry you are in, or how strong or weak your company is, there are things you should have in place RIGHT NOW so you can have some kind of job, or career, security:

1. An updated resume. Of course this makes the list, since it’s a post for the Career-Resumes blog  But really, you should have an updated resume.  When I got laid off I had to hunt down my resume, and spent too much time looking in all the wrong places.  Do you want to spare a day or two just looking for the last resume you used?  Oh yeah, aside from having the information current, make sure the formatting and messaging is current.  If you don’t know what that means, no worries.  The writers at Career Resumes do.
2. A list of “target companies.” When I got help with my job search, I learned I needed to have a list of target companies.  I had developed a list of companies in a brainstorm session, but the career specialist told me I should have 3 - 5 target companies that I would really focus on.  If you aren’t in a serious job search right now you don’t need your 3 - 5, but you definitely should have a list of companies you would put in that list…. just in case.
3. A list of key network contacts. My career specialist pounded this notion into my head: I would get my next job through my networking efforts.  Whether that would prove to be true or not, the statistics support it.  I didn’t want to hear that, though, because I didn’t feel I knew anyone, and felt my competition (other job seekers) had an advantage over me since I was an out-of-towner with a weak local network.  Don’t wait until you are in a serious job search to list your network contacts.  And, don’t just leave them in your company’s computer (Outlook, etc.), as you likely won’t have access to your list once you are let go.
4. A convincing, even compelling 30 second commercial. Whether you call it an elevator pitch, or a commercial, or whatever, the point is to be able to communicate who you are in a short amount of time, and in a way that makes the people listening want to know more.  This is one of the things that is so very hard for most people, as they feel pitchy, and not genuine.  If you feel that way, pick up a copy of Brag! at your library and read it cover-to-cover.  Oh yeah, don’t wait to get a 30 second commercial until you need it… you can use one right now.  Don’t people ask you “what do you do for a living?”  Practice now and you’ll be well-prepared in the future.
5. A solid sense of your finances. If your income got cut off at the end of this month (that is, tomorrow), how will you do?  Do you have savings you can use for mortgage, rent, car payments, food, credit card payments, etc.?  Where will you go for help?  No matter how much money you make now, having it dry up will you.  If you take one month for every $10,000 you want to earn, you know you’ll be out of work for six months just to find a $60k/year job, right?  Are you ready for that?

I wasn’t even close to ready when I started my job search.  It didn’t help that my resume sucked, and I had no idea how to find a professional job.  Hopefully, getting your affairs in order now can help absorb the blow when it affects you.  If nothing else, you can have a certain peace of mind knowing you are doing what you can to prepare.