Learn how to stand out from the competition

By Steve Golberg

It has often been said that “your resume can get you an interview,” but in reality it’s your interview that can get you the job.  In today’s challenging and competitive job market, employer’s have many candidates to choose from and therefore have become more discerning  then ever before, which is why developing your interviewing skills is so important.

The person interviewing you is not only looking at your qualifications, but they are looking at what differentiates you from every other candidate.  Answering the question, “what is it that you bring to this company and to this position that no one else can?” is what helps you stand out in a crowd.

As a professional interviewing coach with We Place People, this is one of the most important topics we discuss when preparing our candidates for interviews. With almost every question you answer, there must be something that you share that will make you stand out differently from everyone else and will ultimately make the company want to hire you!  Remember, an interview is not just about what you have done, it’s about what you can do for that company. It’s what you can offer that your competition can not that will help make you the “candidate of choice.”

Determining who to move forward in the interviewing process is not always as cut and dry as one would think. The front line interviewers themselves are evaluated by the company on the caliber of the candidates they move forward in the process and if that person ultimately gets hired.   They must ensure the candidates are qualified and they will be a “fit” for the organization, the position and the hiring decision maker.  This is where you must “help” by sharing those skills, experiences, training, or qualifications that you bring to the organization that other candidates may not.  It’s also the time to demonstrate your critical thinking process and how you approach and complete tasks, responsibilities, or projects.  These are the same elements that you should prepare for when interviewing with the decision maker.

Here are some tips on how you can differentiate yourself:

1)      Create a list of 5 interview questions that you are certain you will be asked in your interview

2)      Carefully review the job description and learn about the company and position

3)      When answering the interview questions and reviewing the elements of the job description you need to be able to describe:

1. What roles or responsibilities you had in your previous positions as they relate specifically to the position you are applying for and will resonate with the interviewer
2. How you specifically completed each function or responsibility
3. What the results were
4. What you have to offer that makes you stand out amongst others with similar backgrounds

In this job market, differentiating and separating yourself from others can help you standout in your next interview and get the job you want.

Steve Golberg, President, We Place People is an industry expert based on his Executive experience within the retail, financial services and telecommunications industries where he has personally interviewed, hired and placed over 1,000 candidates within his career. Steve has mentored and coached numerous individuals throughout their careers which led them to Executive level positions.

Office (614) 933-0000            www.weplacepeople.com Email steve@weplacepeople.com

Creating your Google Profile is a great way to tell your story and leverage the reach and power of Google search to make sure prospective employers see it!

The following is a webinar on how to set up your Google Profile presented by Glenn Raines, our resident personal branding expert. Glenn covered content strategies, tips and link tactics you can use with your Google Profile to tell your story, enhance your personal brand and raise your career visibility. Watch it hear:

Google Profile _ A Must To Increase Your Career Visibility from Patrick Iwanicki on Vimeo.

Order the Google Profile Ebook Helpful Setup Guide

Glenn also wrote the ebook, Your Google Profile: A Practical Guide to Elevating Your Personal Brand an Findability on the Web. This ebook is a great companion piece to the webinar information as it outlines in greater detail how you can maximize your Google Profile:

• Developing Your Content Strategies

• Adding Keywords to Boost Your Findability

• Strategic Placement of Your Web Links

• Other Tips and Tactics

To order the ebook, add to cart.
$6.95

If you want to raise your career visibility with a little help from Google, you’ll want to check this video out and get the ebook!

by Jason Seiden

The stages of using social media.

Thinking about getting on Facebook or Twitter? Here’s what you need to know:

There are seven stages of social media usage (according to me). These break down into two clusters, including Noob (Beginner) Stages, and User Stages. Here is a brief overview of each:

Noob Stages

If you stapled a sign that said “Rookie” across your forehead, your status wouldn’t be any more obvious.

1.  You feel like an idiot.
People are telling you about these technologies, and you just don’t get it. You can’t see yourself using them, you’re not sure what the point is, and the whole idea of it seems… foreign. Meanwhile, more and more people who you know and respect are using them, making you feel like the last kid picked at recess.

2.  You’re an idiot.
You finally get a page and start playing. And because your page is open for all the world to see, all your tentative first steps, mistakes, mistakenly-uploaded photos, and embarrassingly obvious questions are there for all the world to see. “Does anyone really care if I just worked out?” The answer is no, but you’re going to update your status letting us know anyway. Plus, if you’re on Facebook, you’ve sent your invites and now you need to wait to see who accepts you… while if you’re on Twitter, you have, like, NO FOLLOWERS.

3. You’re an intermittent tool.
While you’re building a following/network, you’ll periodically invite/follow a bunch of other people, making you look (and feel) like a stalker. Chalk it up to growing pains, it’s a stage we all go through. Personal recommendation: never get too far out in front of your skis… on Twitter, I run when I see someone who is following ‘000’s of people yet has only a few dozen followers himself. That smacks of “trying too hard to sell something” to me.

User Stages

4.  You’re a node.
Eventually, you have a small, stable base of followers, including one person who is seemingly connected to the rest of the world. This person serves as your lifeline, bringing you traffic and exposure, and in return you offer valuable content—photos, insights, witty observations, whatever. You’re a node in someone else’s network.

5.  You’re a spoke.
You start to do more than just throw out content. As you get comfortable, you start to push a little, to connect people, to share stuff more purposefully. Now you post about your workout because it’s your way of letting someone know that you know that he did not show up at the club as promised… and if the rest of your network happens to see that post, so be it. You’re still connected mostly to a discrete pocket of people, but the pocket has some substance. You start to use automation and grading tools, but you feel a little silly doing so, since keeping up with everyone’s not that hard…

6.  You’re a hub.
You’re established. You know this because people start seeking you out and inviting you to get involved in stuff. You sit at the epicenter of at least one network. You may never hit this phase, you may hit it quickly. You may be a hub for some networks (like old hs buddies) but not for others (like professionally linked people). You’ve been validated, have a good number of high quality followers, and people actually listen to what you say. You now have the power to draw in new people and begin to convert them from nodes to spokes to hubs… you also now NEED automation tools because you can’t keep up otherwise.

7.  You’re part of a vehicle.
You’re a hub who is tightly connected with other hubs. As such, you now play a pivotal role in both bringing people online and also in cross-pollinating networks. You now personify the power of social media.

NOTE: At no stage along this continuum do I recommend becoming an addict.

See you online!

According to Karin Combs, career coach and owner of Source One Career Coaching (www.sourceonehr.com/), the elevator speech has four basic components:

• Your name and title (a title everyone will understand)
• Who you serve (e.g. internal customers)
• What you do (the skills you have to help a company make money, save money and/or solve problems)
• Your target market (i.e., target companies, geographic areas, company size, area of interest)

“As you begin to say your elevator speech out loud, it will sound like a script,” says Combs. “Practice your elevator speech with everyone! Begin to own it and believe it and it will start to sound more natural. Make it your own words and practice, practice, practice!” (Combs has an elevator-speech template on her website at www.sourceonehr.com/images/Perfecting_Your_Elevator_Speech_Exercise.doc.)

In role-playing with networking colleagues, Interactive Marketing Leader Ray Smith (raysmithweb@gmail.com) would pretend to be the hiring manager. Before hearing an elevator speech, Smith would say “I have 10 people out in the hallway who say they do what you do. I’ll give you 30 seconds. If you convince me that you’re the one I should hire, I’ll tell the rest to go home right now. But if you sound just like the rest, I’m going to yell ‘next!’ Go ahead and tell me what makes you different.”

Smith says that to test the effectiveness of your elevator speech, ask your networking contact to repeat what you do. “If what they’re repeating isn’t what you want communicated, keep shortening the elevator speech and revising it until they do.”

To make his elevator speech memorable, Scott Wittich begins with “My name is Scott Wittich, and I’m out of control,” using a slightly depressed voice and pausing for effect. With a more upbeat and enthusiastic tone, Wittich continues with “Actually, I’m a Financial Controller who is out of a job…”

“If you are going to use humor in an elevator speech, it has to feel and sound natural,” says Wittich. “The bigger point to be made is that no matter what the content of your elevator speech or how you say it, it has to sound natural and be true to who you are or you will sound phony.”

In its entirety, Scott’s elevator speech is:

My name is Scott Wittich, and I’m out of control… Actually, I’m a Financial Controller who is out of a job. But I am looking for a Controller or Accounting Management position that will allow me to get back in control to help a company control its costs and assets.Many people think accounting is boring, but when I worked with operating departments to develop a $125 million annual budget, and worked with those same departments to reduce budgeted costs by $16 million in 5 years, which enabled our operation to be the lowest cost producer of 12 branches, I found that very exciting, especially when it provided job security for the plant’s employees. I am looking for the opportunity to again work with managers to develop and achieve similar goals.

(In this section, Wittich tailors his target market according to his audience, including industry type, company size and geographic location.)

Again, my name is Scott Wittich, and I would appreciate it if you would let me know about any companies searching for a Controller or Accounting Manager.

“I think it is important to emphasize each point of your speech and change the tone of your voice so you don’t speak in a monotone,” says Wittich. “If you forget to say something or say it in the wrong order, no one will know, as long as your body language doesn’t indicate you made a mistake. Just recover and keep on going.”

An elevator speech does not tell your entire life story, says Combs. “The goal for the elevator speech is for people to want to know more! Then you can arrange for a phone discussion or meeting later.”

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I hope that you all get as much of a kick out this as I did:

But despite its growing importance in the professional world, many are still unclear on what personal branding actually is.

To clarify, personal branding is the process of:

• Identifying the unique and differentiating value that you can bring to an organization, team and/or project.

• Communicating it in a professionally memorable and consistent manner in all of your actions and outputs, both online and offline, to all current and prospective stakeholders in your career.

Everyone has a unique personal brand (a.k.a. the unique and differentiating value) which encompasses your strengths, your career goals and your values, and that brand is communicated in everything you do–both when you are looking for a job and when you have already obtained one.

Whether you have already identified and are actively communicating your unique and differentiating value or whether you are just beginning the process, be sure to give your career goals some serious weight in the development or the update of your one-or-two-word brand, supporting pitch and overall ongoing self-presentation. If you don’t, you may unintentionally pigeonhole your personal brand, limiting your opportunities to climb the career ladder.

We are all “pigeonholed” by others based on our perceived personal brand, or strengths, skills, expertise, education, and potential for growth and leadership. This is just what happens in life.

Think about it, why, for instance, do actors and actresses get typecast into the same or similar roles when they often have the talent potential for other genres of film? Unfortunately, their personal brands are often pigeonholed as a result of their talent and strengths. Obviously, depending on your goals, this isn’t always a bad thing. It’s simply that once people formulate a perception of you and your personal brand, it can take a lot of time, energy and sometimes even money to change it.

Therefore, take control now and position yourself and your personal brand for growth and the opportunities you want before others do it for you!

For example, if you’re a salesperson pursuing leadership and management opportunities, you want and may need to become the best salesperson in the organization to demonstrate your strengths and sales expertise and earn that promotion. However, in this case, you should not brand yourself as the “best salesperson,” but better, as more of a “sales strategist” or even “sales coordinator,” simultaneously encompassing your career goals and positioning you perfectly for both your current opportunity and the next.
It’s just like the saying, “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” You have to establish and communicate a personal brand with your goals in mind and with room to grow. Unless you’re completely content in your current position or at your current level, don’t pigeonhole yourself as a big fish in a small pond or you’ll outgrow it with few places left to go. Brand yourself to be a big fish in an ocean of opportunities and communicate and exude that brand in everything that you do to effectively pursue your career dreams and goals.

Guest blogger Chris Perry is a Gen Y Brand and Marketing Generator, a Career Search and Personal Branding Expert and the Founder of Career Rocketeer, the Career Search and Personal Branding Blog.

The poll, which was completed by Digital Brand Expressions and InterBiznet, surveyed 100 hiring managers at various sized companies on how they use social media in the hiring process.

Of the hiring managers surveyed, 75 percent said they use LinkedIn, 48 percent said they use Facebook and 26 percent said they use Twitter to research potential candidates before making a job offer. When it comes to sourcing candidates, 66 percent of hiring managers use LinkedIn, 23 percent use Facebook and 16 percent use Twitter.

“Social media is not only a great networking tool, it’s also a way for employers to perform reference checks on job candidates,” Veronica Fielding, president of Digital Brand Expressions, said. “Because LinkedIn is the most professionally oriented of the three, it tends to attract hiring managers who are doing due diligence.

“While social media sites are ideal ways of gaining more information on job candidates, hiring managers generally use job boards and more traditional methods of finding suitable resumes,” Fielding added. “Whether or not you are job hunting, you should be aware that your public profile is easily accessible so be sure to maintain a professional personal brand.

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If you use Google Gmail or other Google tools (like Google Reader), you already have an account. Use your full name when you register so you can get a “Google vanity URL” (your name in the web address).  Plus, when you fill out your Google profile, check where it says “Display my full name so I can be found in search.”   If you have a blog, website or other digital footprint on the web like VisualCV, be sure to add those links. The more information and links you complete in your profile, the higher up your Google ranking and visibility. And one more thing, write your Google Profile in the third person.

This conveys a subtle tone of being an expert and accomplished in your career. As an example, Google my name and see how it ranks on the Google page ranking. Also, take a look at how I did my Google Profile as a guide. While there isn’t an “I” in Google, there certainly is one in “Profile.”

To add value to your request, customize the introduction to achieve your strategic networking goals. If your goal is to work for the company where the contact is employed, be transparent in your purpose. Also research current news on the company to show you’ve gone the extra step to make your request specific and relevant. Something like, ” Hi Dave, I’m reaching out to you as I see Nifty Tools is moving their widget plant to Chicago. I have experience in widget material procurement and I am seeking a new opportunity. I was hoping we could connect. I’d greatly appreciate any insight you could offer.”

When you sprinkle the right colors that stand out from vanilla, you just might enjoy a double scoop of a new contact and a new job opportunity.