Resume Tips and Career Advice

A company's main reason for not allowing social networks at work (aside from legal ramifications for financial institutions, etc.) is they feel a productivity loss. If you're sharing advice on your social networks at work and blogging, then where is the real business value, unless you're in a social media specialist type role. Companies are looking for you to bring in revenue, decrease costs or at least bring in some return on investment for the expense they're paying for you to work there. If you can't do that because you're building your brand or developing yoru sites at work, then get ready for a big fat pink slip because you're easily replaceable, now that there's 6 job seekers for every job.

Previous: Social Media Mistakes Part Seven: Appropriate Content >>

Posting inappropriate photos on your social media site and forgetting that your profile is public is a common mistake. Remember, often times you and your friends aren't the only ones who can see your information.

Ray Lam, a former NDP candidate for Vancouver-False Creek was forced to resign from his job when photographs were discovered on Facebook. One picture showed him palming a woman's breast and another with his pants down and two people pulling at his underwear. I was going to post the photo here, but it's too inappropriate for this blog. There are other examples of this happening, such as a teacher being fired for her MySpace picture and a nursing home assistant taking pictures with her patients. I have knows for you: you don't own your profiles on social networks. That's right, Facebook owns your profile and companies can pay Facebook for that information. Always think of your profile as public!

Previous: Social Media Mistakes Part Six: Respect Your Elders >>

The economy appears to be getting better and when you turn on the news the positive thoughts are really starting to outweigh the negative emotions. However, were not out of the deep water yet and there are still a lot of job seekers and still very few jobs.

While employers have decreased the amount of lay offs that we are seeing from major companies, a recent article from the New York Times states that employment prospects are still getting worse.

"Job seekers now outnumber openings six to one, the worst ratio since the government began tracking open positions in 2000. According to the Labor Department's latest numbers, from July, only 2.4 million full-time permanent jobs were open, with 14.5 million people officially unemployed. And even though the pace of layoffs is slowing, many companies remain anxious about growth prospects in the months ahead, making them reluctant to add to their payrolls."

How does it look in your market? Are you seeing any changes that can provide insight, motivation, or a positive thought to other job seekers?

If you're a millennial than you have to start figuring out how you want to position yourself at work. Don't think for a minute that everyone that's older than you doesn't understand technology. Although the younger generations are typically more savvy and adept at utilizing social media, there is still a signifcant amount of "seasoned" professionals on the web.

There's five generations in the workforce, and although millennials will be the majority in the year 2020 (HBS), older workers still have senior positions. Instead of trying to be superior than them, which can get you fired or put you in a corner, try and be helpful by supporting their projects with your tech expertise. Think about how you can use your knowledge of social media or web 2.0 technology to your benefit and teach them, instead of trying to outsmart them. Remember, a built bridge is stronger than a burnt bridge.

<< Social Media Mistakes Part Five: Tweeting Too Early

Your colleagues are following you on Twitter, trust me. If you're looking for a career move right now or in the future and you want to promote it, wait till after you've moved from your company.

Supervisor references are always important because endorsements rule the world, so if you want to burn your previous employer by not being transparent offline, then you're in trouble. You can tell your friends and family, but once you announce it to the world, it's fair game and you'll be laid off immediately without the chance to ever return to that company. A lot of people don't realize that once you establish a reputation and a network at a company, it can be your safety net in the future if you desperately need a job.

<< Social Media Mistakes Part 4

Brand association isn't just for advertising and public relations nowadays, even the common worker is effected by this. As such, please don't say that a blog disclaimer is going to disassociate your brand with your company's because it's not and when you get fired your boss won't accept that excuse either!

Brand association is powerful and cannot be undone, which means you have to be smart about what kind of attention you want to draw to yourself. A reporter, journalist, producer or blogger can easily scrape your content and quote it in a story, without your permission. Not only should you be careful about your presence on your blogs but be careful about any attention you draw to your social media outlets including answering linkedin questions, status comments on facebook or myspace, etc. They can link you to your company, even if the blog topic isn't related to your current work position. If news breaks out because of this visibility, your company can fire you for carelessness and for harming the corporate brand. Its called conduct detrimental to the company outside of work. Again, our lives are different now, so you better be safe than sorry (and that sounds like something my parents would say).

Next: Social Media Mistakes Part 5: Tweeting Too Early >>

Previous: Social Media Mistakes Part 3: Corporate Policy >>

Company cultures are always different and have policies (some have social media policies for workers too). Some block social networking sites, while others refrain because they know that people are doing work at home, so their employment contract is different. Robert Half International found that 54% of companies prohibit use of social networking Web sites during work hours, including popular sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Another survey by ScanSafe, indicates that 20% more companies are blocking social networking sites and that 76% currently block them, which is much more than the Robert half survey. Don't complain that your company blocks these sites. If you're truly obsessed, why not access them from your mobile phone? Otherwise, get fired or quit and go somewhere else (though that is not a great idea in todays economy)!

Other companies realize the potential in good corporate web-citizens. For example, eBillme offers training on how to use social networking sites to spread company information.

Next: Social Media Mistakes Part Four: Brand Association >>

Previous: Social Media Mistakes Part Two: Me Before We >>

In an effort to continually inform our audience of mistakes that can be prevented in Social Media we move on to part two of this series: "Me Before We."

Placing Your Personal Brand Before Your Companies

This is still one of the hottest and most controversial topics around, and deservedly so. Often times employees will find themselves tweeting/facebooking/etc. while at work (your scanning blogs right now so don't deny it!). The only thing is that 80% of people are updating their social media about themselves, not about their companies, a report by Rutgers College professors states. Companies, by nature, are looking to build their own brand, sometimes through the use of selectively chosen spokespeople who represent the brand and can be quoted within press articles (cited with the brand). When you're getting more attention than your company, you know something is wrong. You're not getting paid to be the Oprah of a company. Instead, you're being compensated based on the value you provide over time. When you draw attention to your personal brand instead of your company's, then your coworkers will get jealous, your manager will wonder why you aren't getting your work done and you'll eventually get fired.

Next: Social Media Mistakes Part Three: Corporate Policy >>

Previous: Social Media Mistakes Part One: The Simple Stuff >>

As you sit here reading this post take a look at your surroundings... I figure most people would be sitting at home, at the coffee table, enjoying their newspaper and looking for a new job. However, there are many of you who may be in an environment with a coffee cup at your desk instead, TPS reports waiting to be done, and, nevertheless, here you sit browsing the Internet. The purpose of this series will be to summarize a list of Social Media mistakes I have found and prevent you from losing the job you have.

Social Media has become very personal these days, yet it is very easy to view web 2.0 technologies at the driving force that converges our professional and social lives. because of this I think it's important to focus on what you shouldn't do at work, not just just using social media for branding and career strategies. Who you are and how you behave outside of work can impact how you're perceived inside of work and visa versa. Therefore this series will be aimed at preventing those mistakes early on.

With unemployment hovering around 10% a recent article I read suggests that maybe Americans should start focusing their job searches overseas rather than domestically. Good advice, but not if you lack have the treasury to accomplish such a task. Here are some highlights from that article I found particularly interesting.

A recent survey by Manpower Inc. found that employment prospects are most favorable in India, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, China, Australia, Singapore, Costa Rica, Canada, Taiwan, and Poland. Jeff Joerres, Manpower Inc.'s chairman and CEO says a reason for this is because the populations of developing countries are increasing nearly six times as fast as those of developed countries. "This essentially creates a magnet pulling American workers to developing nations, and moving them along as each destination stabilizes. So you can see how Prague was hot for a while for American workers, then Vietnam and Dubai."

Greg Scileppi, director of international operations at Robert Half International adds, "We're seeing growth among financial services and natural resources firms in parts of Asia and Australia. In Western Europe, demand for skilled professionals is increasing among insurance companies as well as boutique banks and private equity firms."