Day 71 - The most important resource for any job seeker

Most job-seekers mistakenly spend too much time online looking at job postings and sending in résumés. In many cases, these attempts lead nowhere. These same postings might be better utilized to provide insight into who is hiring and for what positions.

In addition to job boards and resources like Monster.com, LinkedIn and CareerBuilder, recent grads, especially those with some work experience under their belts (like most non-traditionals), should also take a close look at the actual websites of companies they like. Be sure to read every page and check every link on those corporate websites to learn more about the companies themselves, their leaders, competitive positions and their corporate cultures.

Get to know the Company
Reviewing potential openings that a company posts may give you a clue to its overall requirements for hiring, but the corporate website and the social media it maintains, like Facebook Fan Pages or an actual online community, can provide more valuable clues about the potential opportunities available. There are other online resources that can help expand your list of employment possibilities. Online databases can help locate companies that meet your criteria. They can also automatically generate lists that contain any number of "hidden companies" you may not find on your own. One of the best resources I’ve found is Hoover's, a business information site that contains free (and paid) research on companies.

Online research is certainly a great place to start a job search, but implementing a multichannel approach that targets and markets you is even better, especially if you want to find opportunities at companies that may be lesser known in the marketplace. Experts at New York’s Best Fit Forward, recommend you spend less than 40 percent of job search time online. The face-to-face meeting or interview is still the most important part of the process, so continue to work on those interpersonal skills. While the fastest growing demographic of users on Facebook and Twitter may be over 30, old-fashioned [face-to-face] networking still beats an online job board as one of the quickest ways to get hired.

Seek out local leads
Stepping away from the computer and conducting some face-to-face research through networking is also critical in cultivating a target company list. An ExecuNet report recently found that combining referrals with research and face-to-face meetings builds the strongest foundation. That translates into finding the right job for you.

Read community newspapers and follow the websites of local organizations, even the ones you're not planning to apply to. This will help you identify local companies and understand the specific challenges they may be facing. If you can come up with potential solutions to someone's problem, you’ve got a real shot at being hired. Learn all you can about a company’s history, business performance, product offerings, organizational structure, personality and challenges before you approach. Another great way to identify local companies is by attending meetings and events in town – join a charitable committee, the Chamber of Commerce, volunteer for a cause. Don’t ignore local 'lifestyle' groups. Sometimes, the best information can be found at a child’s soccer game, in a church group or at a local gathering.

Start your list early
If you’ll be looking for work in the next couple of years, start building that target company list now to gain a stronger focus on your particular job search. Remember, you're not alone. Many recent grads don't know how to identify "backyard" opportunities. Find out what is happening today within any company you have an interest in. Get to know the lay of the land. Think about what you bring to the table for any company you want to work for. Don’t be surprised if your past efforts don’t translate to instant worth; most companies are seeking someone who can prove their worth today.

Many people are unsure about how to approach a job search in the current economic environment. Begin with strategy then move on to tactics. A critical component of any marketing plan is identifying the target audience. Gaining a clearer understanding of who we are and where we want to go must come before we can decide how we want to get there.

Day 62 - Designing your own "dream job"

Every second, thousands of people are posting online status updates; every hour, we see thousands of new videos uploaded. Blog posts are being written and published by the millions. Now, cluttering this social media landscape even further, we have millions of "tweets," more short messages to share. More and more content is being shared via mobile phones. Enough!

This onslaught of creative content is too much for many people, especially some of my friends over-50. Until recently, we had relatively few technologies at our disposal to manage the information overload. We were at the mercy of "algorithmic" search - what most of us know as Google (yes, I know, and a few other search engines). Yesterday, I mentioned StumbleUpon, a social bookmarking/content sharing tool that's actually been around for awhile, just like Digg and de.licio.us. Do you think these "collector" tools are really enough to solve the ever-increasing problem of too much online social media? (You may recall the term "collector" from my previous post on the "Social Technographics Profile.")

According to a feature in SocialMediaToday, in only a few years we may reach the point where all information on the Internet doubles every 72 hours. Imagine that! I don't even have an adjective that effectively describes the monster we're creating here. We, the collective people of the world, are generating more information than even we can imagine. One predictable result is that companies have begun to focus more on content creation, especially as they add social media to the marketing mix. Many forward-thinking corporate execs are using social media to listen to what consumers are asking for, and then use the same online audiences (fans, friends, members) to create this wonderful thing called "buzz" about their products and brands.

But who is going to make sense of all this media as more and more goes out into the ether? Is it by chance or by luck that businesses hope to catch the eye of the consumers who need their specific products? I have a new job in mind - one that would pay its own way for any number of companies. The time I've spent and the advanced education I've received has been with good reason. Any corporation today can benefit from a full-time employee - well educated, with excellent business sense, someone honest and trustworthy - who can sift through all the online content and choose the best material for corporate consumption, the best sites to pursue buzz marketing, and the best places to advertise. Yes, they can.

The position I just described does not really exist - yet. Still, I am not alone in thinking this is an idea whose time has come. I've got a certain skillset, 30 years in the making, that's ready to be put to productive use. If such a position did exist, what could we call it? I'm thinking "Web Archivist" or "Social Media Manager."

Blogger Rohit Bhargava at SocialMediaToday has a name for the job already - Content Curator. Defined as: "Someone who continually finds, groups, organizes and shares the best and most relevant content on specifics issues online." Note that the key component in this job description is the word "continually." In the real time world of the Internet, this is critical. If you look at how many people are using Twitter accounts to highlight interesting bits of online content or how del.icio.us users have been tagging and sharing content for years, you will see that the concept has built up some steam.

Here's Bhargava's manifesto describing the new position: "To satisfy the people's hunger for great content on any topic imaginable, there will need to be a new category of individual working online. Someone whose job it is not to create more content, but to make sense of all the content others are creating. To find the best and most relevant content and bring it forward. The people who choose to take on this role will be known as Curators. The future of the social web will be driven by these "Content Curators," who take it upon themselves to collect and share the best content online for others to consume. They will assume the role of citizen editors, publishing highly valuable compilations of content. In time, these curators will bring more utility and order to the social web. In doing so, they will add a voice and point of view to organizations and companies that can connect them with customers - creating an entirely new dialogue based on valued content rather than just brand created marketing messages.

His manifesto actually sums up what I've been trying to accomplish here in my own blog. Hopefully, something similar will become available in corporate communications departments for those of us currently honing the knowledge and skills to provide such a service.

Graduation is right around the corner for many of us, but it's never too early to start searching for the perfect job. If it doesn't exist, we can create it for ourselves!