Lamplighter Newsletter Vol 8 Issue I January-February 2016

Lamplighter

The Best Interview Strategy

By Jerrold (Jerry) Clifford

As we grow up, we see people working at jobs.

We are even taught to get good grades in school so that a suitable company will be interested in us and we can get a good job. But now that we are at a point where we have a choice in the actions that affect our career, why do we want a job? Is it to provide for our family? Pay off a mortgage or to pay down or eliminate college debt? Or buy a coveted item such as a house or new car? Maybe even save some money for

Volume 8, Issue 1 January-February, 2016

retirement? Whatever it is we have a goal which we want to achieve.

So you determine a company for which you want to work. You do your due diligence. You research the company, create your job-specific credentials, spend time getting your application exactly right and even get someone in the company to support your candidacy and help ensure that the appropriate individuals review your documents.

The hiring manager reviews your credentials and background, decides you probably have the required skills necessary for the position and decides to arrange an interview.

You feel happy because you can elaborate on your background and share your needs and goals with the company.

And without realizing it, you may or may not be promoting yourself as the best candidate.

An interview is really bi-directional – You, as the candidate can regard the interview as an opportunity to determine if the job is right for you. However, even if you feel that the position is right for you, the company won’t give you an offer if they think otherwise. Remember, there would not even be a job opening if the company did not have a need for it. From the company’s perspective the purpose of the interview is to determine if the candidate can address or eliminate that need.

The company wants assurance that the candidate can, and will, address or eliminate that need. The manager wants the candidate to explain how his background, training and experience (hopefully including solving the same or similar problems) can address the need. The hiring manager wouldn’t want to focus on a discussion of what the candidate wants; in fact, at this time he/she probably doesn’t care. Give the hiring manager what he/she wants by showing that you can fill the need and you will probably get an offer allowing you to get what you want.

Page 1 of 12

Lamplighter

Volume 8, Issue 1 January-February, 2016

Welcome to Lamplighter, 2016 Welcome to the first edition of Lamplighter for 2016. This promises to be an exciting year, both for Presidential candidates and for Lamplighter readers.

If you read The Best Interview Strategy on the first page, Jerry Clifford shines light on an important point often overlooked: Companies have a need and they hire to fill that need. They basically use the dating putdown: It’s not about you . . . it’s about me.

Coach Rod Colón shows ways to help you fill that need, through understanding your competencies (Identify Market Demand for Your Competencies/Skills) and a few articles on networking, another often overlooked (and misunderstood) tool available to any and all job seekers.

Through networking, you can spot where openings in your field exist; you can also find where you field might be able to blend with existing openings, from which both experience and, perhaps, skills can be gained.

Jobs are often like onions (right down to the stink and tears): they must be revealed (this is what makes job hunting a-peeling). Networking helps peel back the many layers, not directly, but most often subtly, through questions and answers.

Networking works best when people discuss a subject, whether the subject is sports, a type of work, or any problem. Networking shows the ability to ask for help; it also shows the ability to render it if required.

Asking shows that the working values the opinion of

another, and offering help shows a willingness to help solve a problem.

In the section Articles from Around the Web, emphasis is placed on how to effectively begin communication with a prospective employer (about cover letters, what to do before an interview) and how to overcome rejection when things don’t work out in your favor.

Barb Daisak’s Social Media Tech Tips offers ways to use LinkedIn and Twitter effectively. While Twitter is much newer than LinkedIn, it is gaining fans as an internet version of London’s famous Hyde Park.

LinkedIn is the standard for professionals, and a few of the articles suggested by Barb may help you increases your use of the tool.

This issue starts the 8th year of Lamplighter, and we thank you for reading our little newsletter. In addition, we thank Rod Colón, Carl Reid, Jerry Clifford for their contributions to this issue; we also thank all the contributors throughout the years for making Lamplighter possible.

Aida Rodriguez, Barbara Daisak, and I reiterate our thanks for your readership, and hope that if you’d like to share something through Lamplighter (an article), you will send it to Aida (adelaida.rodriguez1@verizon.net). Please use “Article for Lamplighter” in the subject.

We hope you all had a merry Christmas and Hanukkah season and are looking forward to the new year. We sure are.

Thanks again.

Eric Nilsson

Article

Index to Lamplighter Articles and Sections Page Article

The Best Interview Strategy Welcome to Lamplighter, 2016 The Power of Hope Lamplighter Survey Identify Market Demand for Your Core . . .

Give Networking a Rest How to Identify the Right Job

1 2 3 3 4 4 4

Preparing for Rod Colon's 7-Step Job Search Methodology The 7-Step Job Search Methodology Uncovering the Hidden Job Market [11] Articles from Around the World Wide Web Barb Daisak’s Social Media Tech Tips [8 tips] Contributors and Staff

Page 2 of 12

Page 5 5 6 7 10 12

Lamplighter

Volume 8, Issue 1 January-February, 2016

The Power of Hope “Hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.”

I have carried with me a special hope for the past six years. Six year ago, we enrolled my grandson in the Pre-K class in a Catholic school. The school has a tradition of presenting a Christmas pageant every year and its highlight is the “Little Drummer Boy” presentation. Every year, the student who performs the Little Drummer Boy part is always chosen from the fourth grade class. From that time on, I always nurtured the hope that when my grandson reaches that grade, he would be chosen to sing and perform the part of the Little Drummer Boy. He is now in that grade! My special hope for him came to fruition when the music teacher called and told us that my grandson was chosen to be the Little Drummer Boy for this year’s Christmas pageant. On December 24, Christmas Eve, my hope became a reality when my grandson sang and performed as the Little Drummer Boy. He sang beautifully!

We were so proud of him and we took pictures and videos with tears in our eyes. We are truly blessed. It is such a great feeling to have your hope come to reality!

Let us welcome the New Year 2016 with hope in our hearts and mind. Let’s hope that this year would give us peace of mind and body, better relationship with our family and friends, and good livelihood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkXDby0kZ1I

  

Develop hope by:  Acknowledging your strength. Make a list of your strengths and positive traits. It will help you develop your hope for the future.  Try to surround yourself with supportive people who will encourage you to be your best.  Engage in doing activities that you can enjoy and will help

develop your sense of hope.

Get involved in volunteer work that would give you benefits for your mental and physical health.

Make sure that you hope for something that is realistic. Your vision should be something you can achieve.

Set some goals and work hard to achieve them.

Most important is to always have faith in yourself and your ability to survive!

Aida A. Rodriguez

Lamplighter Survey Lamplighter wants to hear from you. As you know, Lamplighter has changed since it first started and much of this change is due to the comments of our readers. Please take a few minutes to tell us what we're doing right and — it's hard to believe — what we are doing wrong.

Lamplighter Survey.

Page 3 of 12

Back to Index

Lamplighter

Volume 8, Issue 1 January-February, 2016

Identify Market Demand for Your Core Competencies/Skills

Give Networking a Rest ... Are You Kidding Me!

By Rod Colòn

By Rod Colòn

Enjoy the game plan …

PROCEDURE 1. Get your list of 3 – 5 core skills ready.

2. Run the “Advanced Search” on Indeed.com to filter positions you find.

3. You have a match (your skills measured against an available position) when you can answer “yes” to these three questions:  Can I do it?  Can I prove it?  Am I interested?

4. Print the job opening and save it electronically for use in Step 4.

TOOLS  Indeed.com (www.indeed.com) – Advanced Search feature BENEFITS/BUSINESS RATIONALE  Think of the job description as a Request For Proposal (RFP)  You’re not really in business until you find a client; you must identify the market demand for your core skills.  CEOs make informed decisions and rely heavily on business intelligence they gather through their R & D Department. They also keep current on technology and hold themselves accountable for mastering certain online applications that can have a direct impact on the company’s bottom line.  As a business owner, would you ever “skim through” an RFP? Then why would you skim through a job description?

NOTES  If there is NO market demand, go back to Step 1 and zero in on different skills.  Make sure you have a good handle on the appropriate keywords and titles that match what you do.

Consider getting advice from a career coach.  The reason for filtering the results in Indeed.com’s Advanced Search is to get more qualified (more precisely targeted) opportunities.  Using Indeed.com at this step helps you to determine market demand (the “spot market”; a snapshot of what the prevailing market conditions look like).

My friends often tease me, saying: “Rod, you’re always networking. Why not give it a rest?” They might as well say, “Rod, you’re always breathing. Why not give it a rest?” My answer is the same for both questions: “I can’t.”

For me, networking is all about interacting with people no matter who they are, where they are, or what they’re doing. It could be members of my family, neighbors, members of the PTA, or the UPS driver. I don’t care. I gravitate to people because they fascinate me. I love them. They charge me up and give meaning to my life. Everyone has a story to tell, and I love hearing those stories.

Of course that’s the practical, every day, “fun” side of networking. I need to make sure you understand the business imperative of networking, too.

Relationships are the new “capital” of the 21st century and as such, will have a much greater impact on growth in almost every business sector of the economy. If you opt out of networking, you are taking yourself out of the career landscape for a long time to come. This is one of the reasons why I am constantly in the networking trenches: It’s not JUST about the job search, it’s about becoming masters of networking with an eye toward securing a viable place in the relationship-based global economy of the future.

It all begins with the machinery of networking. And that machinery must never stop.

Take the opportunity this weekend to hone your networking skills.

How to Identify the Right Job

By Rod Colòn

The right job enhances your life. It is personally fulfilling because it nourishes the most important aspects of your personality. It suits the way you like to do things and reflects who you are. It lets you use your innate strengths in ways that come naturally to you, and it doesn’t force you to do things you don’t do well (at least, not often!).

How can you tell if you’re in the right job? Here are some general guidelines. If you’re not employed, keep

Page 4 of 12

Back to Index

Lamplighter

Volume 8, Issue 1 January-February, 2016

them in mind as you search for your ideal job. If you are employed, see how your present job measures up.

If you’re in the right job, you should: • Look forward to going to work • Feel energized (most of the time) by what you do • Feel your contribution is respected and appreciated • Feel proud when describing your work to others • Enjoy and respect the people you work with • Feel optimistic about your future It’s important to recognize that there are as many different paths to career satisfaction as there are happily employed people. There is no one “ideal job” to which everyone should aspire. But there is an ideal job for you — you just need to master the skills necessary to find it.

There are an infinite number of variables in the workplace. To achieve career satisfaction, you need to figure out what your preferences are and then find a job that accommodates them. Some jobs provide warmth and stability; some are risky and challenging. Some are structured, some aren’t. One job may require a lot of socializing, while another may require quiet concentration. Do you know exactly what kind of job suits you best? Have you ever even stopped to think about it?

Preparing for Rod Colon's 7-Step Job Search Methodology

By Rod Colòn

There are some specific things you need to know and do before starting the 7-Step Job Search Methodology. Make sure you understand them because each has a critical purpose. The omission of any one of them may nullify your best efforts.

Success is yours if you follow the procedure carefully.

• This is a 7-Step Methodology. Not four. Not six. Seven. You must execute all seven steps for the methodology to work. If you skip a step, the methodology will not work. If you forget a step, same result.

• Think of the methodology as a giant loop: When you reach Step 7, you must go back and start the process all over. Do not expect to achieve success by stepping yourself through the procedure a few times, getting discouraged, and then abandoning the effort. Keep working the process. There is momentum and magic in the repetition.

• You need to make a genuine effort to understand each step. You must say to yourself, “What’s going on here? What are they really asking me to do?” You can take your chances on following the

•

•

steps blindly, but if you’re not sure why you’re doing them, what good can they serve?

The “7 Steps” are listed in sequence. Do Number 1 first. Do Number 3 third, and so on. Arbitrarily changing the sequence renders the methodology useless.

You cannot afford to be indecisive. At various points in the methodology, you’ll need to make tough decisions. Make them! You’re the CEO of a business!

The 7-Step Job Search Methodology

By Rod Colòn

1000s have been helped by this system globally … enjoy!

Step 1: First, you will determine what your core skills are. Everyone is good at something; so what are your skills, talents, and abilities? What would be a suitable title for someone who does your kind of work?

Step 2: You call your work by a particular name; now it’s time to find out what the marketplace calls it. Are you a Java Developer? A Financial Analyst? You’ll make good use of a web site called Indeed.com to perform this task. You’ll also get a first look at opportunities that may be a good fit for you. The importance of this step is that it helps you determine the market demand for your skills (i.e., the spot market; a snapshot of what the prevailing market conditions look like).

Step 3: Now, using LinkedIn and your networking skills, try to identify advocates; these are people either in your network or in the networks of friends, business contacts, etc… who can “connect the dots” for you within a targeted company to get your name circulated among key decision-makers. At this step, you are performing “networking research”, that is, you are not actually reaching out to these advocates yet, just identifying who they are.

Step 4: You will then develop your value proposition consisting of: 1) a targeted resume; 2) a cover letter (or TLetter), and 3) the job description itself. In this step you are building your case for the job. Since these documents will either make or break you, you will want to have them as close to perfection as possible.

Note: Although the value proposition consists of 1) the job description, 2) the targeted resume, and 3) the T-Letter, you will only actually submit the resume and cover letter. Decision-makers don’t need to see the job description. We include it as part of the value proposition to make sure that we keep ourselves properly tracked with its requirements while engaging advocates.

Step 5: Once you’re SURE you understand the position for which you’ve identified suitable advocates, prepare to

Page 5 of 12

Back to Index

Lamplighter

Volume 8, Issue 1 January-February, 2016

connect with them. For advocates who are in a decisionmaking role, you'll place a call to them and sell, i.e., your “Sales & Marketing Team” swings into gear. With advocates who are friends, or friends of friends, you'll network to establish a communications chain to the decision makers (your “Research & Development Team” manages this). In all cases, you will document all contact with advocates to ensure timely and appropriate follow-up.

Step 6: After that, you will submit your value proposition as instructed and set up a specific follow-up schedule. You will track your contact with all advocates to ensure that no follow-up calls or e-mails are forgotten.

Step 7: Finally, you will repeat the process. As the CEO of a business, you never settle for having just one client. When you’re in transition and actively looking for work, your goal should be to find at least one new client a day.





Uncovering the Hidden Job Market



By Rod Colòn WHERE DO YOU LOOK FOR IT? Due to the sheer volume of applicants competing for a fixed number of positions, many employers don’t even bother registering their openings on big-name job boards like Monster, Dice, and CareerBuilder.

Instead, they turn to the networks of their existing employees to help recruit qualified candidates. This means there may be great opportunities at a company of interest, but you’ll never find out about them via the traditional approach of querying Internet job boards.

Why would an employer do this? There are two immediate advantages. First, hiring managers can avoid the torrent of paperwork from job seekers who aren’t even remotely qualified for a position. Second, they can bypass the registration process with the job boards and confine interview time to a bare minimum.

There's something else you need to know about the Hidden Job Market. Step 2 of the 7-Step Job Search Methodology (Module 9), is based on the spot market. In other words, it uses today's market conditions to determine what positions are currently available. By contrast, the Hidden Job Market is based on the futures market, that is, the potential for positions that might exist or that could be created in the future — your future.

SPECIFIC SUGGESTIONS FOR UNCOVERING THE HIDDEN JOB MARKET  Expand your search tools (don’t confine yourself to one job search engine; there are several out there and results can vary significantly).Do Google searches on keywords associated with your indus-





try to bring up names of organizations, memberships, employee directories, etc… Again, they don’t pop up out of nowhere; you need to be diligent and persistent. Use advanced filters for your Google search to either expand your search outward or confine it to a certain set of pre-determined keywords.

Craigslist is a potential source of leads that can fall through the filter of Internet job boards. There are documented incidents of job seekers finding their “perfect job” by combing through Craigslist postings every day.

One of the very best sources of information about companies and contacts within companies is LinkedIn. Continue to use LinkedIn to gather information about people, companies, trends, innovations, mergers, reorganizations, major announcements, etc.

An excellent way to uncover a company’s “inside intelligence” is to tap into its online network through the power of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. If you tend to dismiss these sites as “gossip centers”, you’re making a mistake.

Businesses are leveraging the power of rapid information exchange to stay ahead of the curve on trends and issues affecting their industry. Many postings on these sites are gold mines of industryspecific or niche-specific information.

One of the great lessons learned from Keith Ferrazzi’s book Never Eat Alone is that job seekers must learn to be bold and audacious. In that vein, there’s no law against picking up the telephone and contacting a company directly with suggestions about how your products or services will bolster their bottom line.

Blogging is another great source of leads into companies of interest. How? Visit a company’s blog and post some insightful comments. If you leave a link back to your own blog, you can easily start picking up feedback streams of replies from employees.

What it boils down to is this: the Hidden Job Market is created through your own ingenuity. But penetrating this market relies on the same machinery that drives all your “regular” job searches: networking.

For the most part, employers base their hiring decisions on trust. They are more likely to hire people they know or those referred by people they know. For this reason, your warm trusted network is your No. 1 source of solid job leads.

Page 6 of 12

Back to Index

Lamplighter

Volume 8, Issue 1 January-February, 2016

11 Essential Cover Letter Tips

by Vault Careers | October 21, 2015

Your cover letter is just as important as your resume and deserves just as much attention. It’s the first correspondence read by a prospective employer, and a badly written cover letter won’t get you in the door, or even your resume read.

Typically, a cover letter has three short paragraphs. Each has no more than three sentences. The first paragraph is your chance to get the reader's attention. This is the ideal place to say that you offer something not seen from the typical applicant.

See the suggestions and the eleven tips here: http://www.vault.com/blog/resumes-cover-letters/11-essentialcover-letter-tips

8 Ways Pinterest Can Advance Your Career

How to 'pin' your way to a new job.

By Arnie Fertig Nov. 17, 2015 | 10:10 a.m. EST

You’ve likely heard the steady drumbeat: LinkedIn has become an indispensable element of any successful job search. And it is true: This platform is unequaled in the multiplicity of ways you can put yourself “out there” to be discovered as well as find opportunities to further your career.

But it’s likely that you’ve played down or ignored the value of other social media sites like Pinterest. Chances are, you think of Pinterest as a place to find recipes or ideas for crafts projects. Here are eight ways it can help your career: See the suggestions here: http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2015/11/17/8-ways-pinterest-can-advance-yourcareer

Job Applicant Pitfalls

By Joseph Barber November 23, 2015

Unless you are a zoologist or a posterior anatomist, the word “asses” is not a word that you would generally want to use in your CV, résumé or cover letter. I am a zoologist, but I still haven’t found a good excuse to use this. I do talk

about chickens a lot (an awful lot), but fortunately my research focused on laying hens, and so I never had to talk about the male birds.

Most people who talk about asses in their application materials probably don’t want to. Chances are that they actually wanted to say “assess” -- that extra “s” makes all the difference.

To be honest, I have only seen this four or five times in the many different types of application materials I have reviewed at the University of Pennsylvania, but every time I see it, I really see it. This mistake doesn’t slip by unnoticed. And if I were an employer wanting to make sure that my future hire has demonstrated attention to detail, or a high motivation for the position (as evidenced by taking a lot of care about their materials), then this might be one of those arbitrary mistakes that I could use to take well-qualified candidates out of the running to get down to a manageable short list of similarly qualified candidates who don’t mistakenly talk about asses.

Keep reading: https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2015/11/23/easy-fixes-your-cvr%C3%A9sum%C3%A9-and-interview-answers-essay

Infosec jobs: Use keywords to boost your LinkedIn ranking

By Kristin Burnham CSO | Nov 24, 2015 3:17 AM PT

When hiring managers find you on LinkedIn, it’s not by chance.

The social network, with more than 400 million users worldwide, is the go-to resource for many companies looking for talent. Rising to the top of these search results happens when your profile complete, specific, detailed— and chock full of the right keywords.

“It’s all about searchability on LinkedIn. You want to make it easy for recruiters and hiring managers to find you,” says Matthew Ripaldi, senior regional vice president at talent firm Modis. “You do that by loading your profile with words and phrases that they would use to find people with your experience.”

Keep reading: http://www.csoonline.com/article/3007719/itcareers/infosec-jobs-use-keywords-to-boost-yourlinkedin-ranking.html

Page 7 of 12

Back to Index

Lamplighter Getting Past 'Overqualified' in a Job Interview

by Anne Fisher @anbfisher NOVEMBER 29, 2015, 10:04 AM EST

Hiring managers often doubt that anyone really wants to take a step “down.” Here’s how to convince them.

Dear Annie: Your recent article about changing careers after age 50 really hit home with me. At 54, I’ve been a senior manager in a couple of big ad agencies for the past 18 years. But before this, I loved doing the hands-on creative work — coming up with ideas, writing copy, shooting ads, and working directly with people like clients and videographers. I miss all that, and I’d like to go back to it, instead of leading and mentoring people who do it.

There’s just one problem, and it’s a big one. Job interviewers seem to doubt I’d be happy taking a step “down,” maybe because it would naturally involve a pay cut (which at this point I can well afford). Leaving my management experience off my resume altogether would create a huge gap. Any suggestions? — Not “Overqualified” See what Anne suggests here: http://fortune.com/2015/11/29/job-interview-overqualified/

5 Ways Professionals Can Boost Their Online Reputations

According to one survey, 51 percent of hiring managers use search engines to research candidates.

By Hannah Morgan Nov. 25, 2015 | 9:00 a.m. EST + More

Volume 8, Issue 1 January-February, 2016

status updates, LinkedIn profile, resume and online conversations.

Don't ignore your online reputation or dismiss social media altogether. In fact, 51 percent of hiring managers use search engines to research candidates, according to a CareerBuilder survey. Furthermore, 35 percent of employers said they were less likely to interview a candidate they couldn't find online.

Read the full article: http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2015/11/25/5-ways-professionals-can-boosttheir-online-reputations

The Biggest Mistake to Avoid Before a Job Interview

By Ashley Stahl CONTRIBUTOR DEC 1, 2015 @ 10:00 AM

If a hiring manager were to Google your name right now, what would come up?

According to a recent study by Domain.Me, more than half the population can’t answer that question.

That’s a pretty alarming statistic, considering that 77 percent of recruiters Google their candidates before they even decide to call them in for an interview.

Whether you’re actively seeking a job or looking to climb the corporate ladder at your current company, proactively monitoring your digital footprint could mean the difference between whether or not you land your dream job or get that promotion.

Stop Googling celebs and cat videos… Start paying attention to the search results populated by your own name.

Here are a few ways to clean up your digital footprint and maintain a professional online image.

See Ashley’s suggestions here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ashleystahl/2015/12/01/thebiggestmistaketoavoidbeforeajobinterview/

Personal branding isn't just for celebrities. It applies to you, too!

Consider this: More than one-quarter of Americans now believe that they are more likely to make a first impresHow Job Hunting Has Changed In the Last sion online than at a party or social engagement. That's acDecade cording to a survey by Domain.ME, the provider of the .ME domain extension, and Wakefield Research.

New technologies have altered the ways in Your brand is made up of your online and offline repwhich hiring managers find and evaluate aputations, based on the words and actions you use. Despite plicants. that, 79 percent of Americans have not tried to manage By Marcelle Yeager Dec. 3, 2015 | 9:30 a.m. EST information about themselves online, according to the survey.

Job searching has changed drastically over the last You already have a reputation among the people know 10 years or so. Even if the last time you were on the you. Ask trusted friends what words they would use to dejob hunt was only several years ago, you need to reacscribe you. If your reputation is good, all you need to do is to reiterate and reinforce these words and concepts in your quaint yourself with how it differs today. Otherwise, Page 8 of 12 Back to Index

Lamplighter

Volume 8, Issue 1 January-February, 2016

you may not get a good return on your time investment regardless of whether you submit an application online or send your resume through a contact.

The truth is that the Internet has shifted the way it all works. There are aspects of your resume and online profile that can easily date you if you don't take steps to update your approach. This puts you in danger of rejection before you even manage to get an interview.

Here's what you need to be aware of before beginning your search.

Keep reading: http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2015/12/03/how-job-hunting-has-changed-inthe-last-decade

IT Resume Makeover: How to cut through the technical noise

Allen Bocian's resume was packed with skills, experience and knowledge, but his overall message was getting lost. Here's how Regal Resumes' Caitlin Sampson helped him focus his story.

By Sharon Florentine | Dec 2, 2015 5:06 AM PT

Allen Bocian is the kind of guy who likes to let his experience speak for itself. The problem was there was so much to say that the pertinent message about his skills and knowledge was getting lost, and potential employers stopped listening.

"My resume had lots of information. I'm a technical guy, but trying to cram eight million pieces of information into the document was hard. If you're not a technical person, it was hard to read, and nothing really stood out, so it was hard to sell myself even with all the experience and tech knowledge I had," Bocian says.

Caitlin Sampson, professional resume writer and career consultant with Regal Resumes agreed that Bocian had the technical chops, but needed help crafting his years of experience and extensive knowledge into a much better story.

3 Things to Remember When Networking Dice Staff 12/02/2015

If you’re hunting for a job, you understand the need to network. And on a surficial level, networking is far simpler than, say, writing a cover letter or negotiating the minefield of a job interview: Meet people, talk to them, and build a relationship. Easy, right?

Not really. Whether or not you’re an introvert, effective networking demands a fairly significant amount of prep work, along with a solid strategy for when you actually interact with someone face-to-face.

Here are three things to keep in mind: See the suggestions here: http://insights.dice.com/2015/12/02/3-things-to-rememberwhen-networking/

Networking no-no’s: The wrong way to go about building connections Originally published December 4, 2015 at 1:52 am Updated December 7, 2015 at 2:18 pm

By Lora Shinn, Advertising Publications Special to The Seattle Times Jobs

Jassen Bowman’s least favorite word bandied about during networking sessions?

Synergy. As in, “Let’s get together and see if we have synergy.”

“The word is so over-used, and it makes me cringe every time I hear it,” says Bowman, who recently cofounded Learning Suite, a Seattle-based educational technology startup that provides professional education for accountants, tax professionals and attorneys.

“The startup world is filled with people trying too hard to impress other people,” Bowman says. “I wish that people would just speak plainly, the classic ‘say what you mean, mean what you say.’ There is no reason to complicate things.”

Keep reading: http://www.seattletimes.com/nwshowcase/careers/networking-no-nos-the-wrong-way-togo-about-building-connections/

Use this knife to cut through the noise: http://www.cio.com/article/3011045/careers-staffing/it-resume-makeover-how-to-cut-through-thetechnical-noise.html

Page 9 of 12

Back to Index

Lamplighter

Volume 8, Issue 1 January-February, 2016

Getting started with Twitter If you've signed up for Twitter and are wondering how to get started or why you're here, this page is for you. Learn more about the basics of using Twitter here. You can also use this guide, designed to help you dive into Twitter’s wealth of information and find what matters most to you.

First things first, you might be wondering: Read more: cles/215585

https://support.twitter.com/arti-

The Unbearable Lightness of Tweeting At the heart of the media's chattiest technology is a hollow sharing economy. A personal investigation into just how little traffic Twitter's maelstrom actually contributes to websites.

DEREK THOMPSON FEB 16, 2015 BUSINESS

In January, I deleted Twitter from my phone. The app was a charming distraction, I decided, and 2015 would be a year of productivity upgrades.

Three weeks later, I cheated by opening Twitter on my iPhone browser. Four weeks later, I was refreshing the same page every other hour. Five weeks later, my productivity experiment in tatters, I re-downloaded the app.

This is when I noticed a new feature: View Tweet Activity. It is an engagement "dashboard"—that is, numbers with pictures—that tells you how many times your tweet appeared on users' glassy screens, how many times they clicked it, and how many times they shared it.

Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/02/the-unbearable-lightness-of-tweeting/385484/

11 Things You Should Be Doing On LinkedIn But Probably Aren't

By Richard Feloni With 277 million users and counting, LinkedIn has become the definitive business networking site. If you're just using the site as a place to keep your resume online, however, then you're missing out on some great opportunities.

LinkedIn has been rolling out several new features in the past year, including a new publishing platform and a revamped "Who's Viewed Your Profile" function.

Here's a look at 11 ways you can make LinkedIn a more valuable tool for keeping in touch with your network and getting recruiters to come to you.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-tomake-the-most-of-linkedin-2014-2

How to Use LinkedIn: 35 LinkedIn Tips for Professional Networking, Business & Marketing Written by Pamela Vaughan | @pamelump

With more than 380 million members, LinkedIn is the most popular social network for professionals and one of the top social networks overall. But are you using LinkedIn to its fullest potential?

With new social networks sprouting up constantly, LinkedIn is a platform that often gets underutilized or put on the back burner. But the truth is, LinkedIn can be extremely powerful -- especially when you're aware of all the platform's hidden features that don't get nearly as much attention as they deserve.

So to help you learn how to use LinkedIn effectively, this post is chock full of LinkedIn tips you may be overlooking ... but definitely shouldn't.

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/23454/The-Ultimate-Cheat-Sheet-forMastering-LinkedIn.aspx

Using LinkedIn™ Effectively Growing Your Professional Network By the Mind Tools Editorial Team

You've likely heard of LinkedIn™, the business-oriented social networking website that many people use for keeping in touch with business associates, clients, and former colleagues.

But is this LinkedIn's only use? Or can you use it in other ways to grow yourself professionally and help your organization to network more effectively?

In this article, we'll explore how to use LinkedIn for personal, professional, and organizational development,

Page 10 of 12

Back to Index

Lamplighter

Volume 8, Issue 1 January-February, 2016

including how you can use it for networking and recruitment, and for keeping up with trends and news in your industry.

Read more: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/linkedin.htm

What Recruiters Think When They See Your LinkedIn Profile

board appointments, for media introductions, or other networking opportunities. Bios provide credibility and should link to more information. In fact, I think bios are so important that I maintain a "secret" unlinked page on my website specifically to maintain my professional bios and photos. (Visit http://www.lisabmarshall.com/bio if you want to see mine as an example.)

See more at: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/business-career/careers/heres-why-you-need-to-rewriteyour-bio

And how to impress the heck out of them.

By Laura McMullen Feb. 19, 2015, at 3:22 p.m.

If you don't know, now you know: LinkedIn is not some digital landfill where you dump your résumé text and pretty picture (yes, you need a photo) and leave it as some act of professional due diligence. LinkedIn is where folks get jobs – or at least get closer to jobs than they would just submitting online applications.A 2014 Jobvite survey of 2,135 adults found that 94 percent of recruiters use LinkedIn to source and vet candidates, while only 36 percent of job seekers are active on the site. You know better.

If you want to impress the heck out of recruiters, answer their questions: Does this person really want the job? It's tempting to root yourself in the cozy world of job boards, where you can simply shovel your information into online applications and never have to ask anything of anyone. But this easy route is rarely effective. "The cold application should be the very last resort," says Brendan Browne, senior director of global talent acquisition at LinkedIn. "If you navigate your way to a warm path, your efficiency rate goes way up."

Five Steps to Take When You Don't Get the Job Liz Ryan CONTRIBUTOR

Here's Why You Need to Rewrite Your Bio

Our client Ivy was halfway home from a job interview when a “ping!” from her phone signalled [sic] an incoming email message, and Ivy was curious enough to pull over to read it.

The email message came from the HR person Ivy had just left – Neil. “Thanks so much for meeting with our team, Ivy,” said Neil’s brief message.

“We’re going to go with another candidate, but we very much appreciate your time.”

“I was only halfway home!” Ivy told us later. “They couldn’t wait an hour before sending my ‘Thanks but no thanks’ note?”

Ivy didn’t want the job all that much anyway, but she didn’t appreciate wasting two hours of her life on Neil and his colleagues when her overriding sense throughout the interview was that they already had a favorite candidate in mind.

“I kind of stalked Neil on LinkedIn for a few months because I figured he’d become a first-degree connection of the person who stepped into the job I interviewed for, and sure enough he did,” said Ivy.

Need to freshen your professional board bio? Lisa talks about what your professional bio needs to get noticed.

Keep reading: http://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2015/12/15/fivesteps-to-take-when-you-dont-get-the-job/

Read more: http://money.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2015/02/19/what-recruiters-think-whenthey-see-your-linkedin-profile

By Lisa B. Marshall, The Public Speaker December 14, 2015

Most of us update our resumes and LinkedIn profiles, but few of us also consistently maintain our professional bios. What's the difference, you ask? A bio is much shorter than a resume or online profile and is focused on bolstering credibility. Bios are very crisp, concise, and compelling words that convey your background and are used for a variety of purposes such as for creating speech introductions, for article bylines, for book jackets, for Page 11 of 12

Back to Index

Lamplighter

Volume 8, Issue 1 January-February, 2016

Lamplighter Contributors Jerrold (Jerry) Clifford is a project/program Management, PMO management and strategic Project planning specialist with advanced expertise in managing multiple, concurrent, highly visible projects and rescuing troubled projects.

He is the author of several books including Computer Mathematics Handbook, Modern Electronics Math, Handbook for Electricians, Complete Car Owners Manual, and Basic Woodworking & Carpentry. He is also the recipient of the President’sVolunteer Service Award from President Obama.

Rod Colon Career Strategist, Corporate Train-er, Motivational Speaker, Radio Show Host, Author and Master Networker.

Professional Training & Coaching - Greater New York CityArea Current: Rod Colon Consulting, LLC, InclusionINC, Wolters Kluwer Health

Carl E. Reid, CSI Chief Savvy @Intrapreneur Empowering People to Achieve EXTRA-ORDINARY RESULTS Greater New York City Area – Management Consulting Current: Empowering Today's Professionals, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America

Lamplighter Staff Adelaida (Aida) Rodriguez is the Editor-in-Chief and Contributing Writer of the Lamplighter Newsletter. She is a Project Manager Professional (PMP), Business Analyst/ Consultant at the Warranty Recovery Specialist, LLC

Barbara Daisak is the Lamplighter Contributing Writer & Proofreader. In addition, she is a Learning, Training, & Development Specialist and Microsoft Certified Master Instructor. Barb is also an Instructor Adjunct with the County Colleges of New Jersey with specialties in the Technology Training Divisions and Corporate Training Programs.

Phone Numbers:732.863.4948 ― 732.616.2397-mobile Email Barbara at: bndaisak@verizon.net

Eric Nilsson is the Compositor and Contributing Writer for Lamplighter. Eric enjoys the art and science of newspaper layout. He has been an IT consultant at the Professional Service Group of New Brunswick and previously worked for North Jersey Media Group (Bergen Evening Record) as a Project Manager and Programmer/Analyst. Interests include economics, history, and journalism.

Email: ericnilsson@earthlink.net; LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ericsnilsson

EMPOWERING TODAY’S PROFESSIONALS (ETP) MISSION Encourage, train, support, mentor and advise fellow CEOs of ME, Incorporated in all aspects of defined responsibilities to their personal Board of Directors.

ETP was established specifically to help individuals in transition find jobs.

ETP CORE VALUES ETP has a special concern for the advancement of professionals worldwide and is committed to delivering its core values of INTEGRITY, RESPECT, RESPONSIBILITY, and COMPASSION to its members.

Page 12 of 12

Back to Index