job.search – Building your Professional Presence for a Competitive Job Market

We find ourselves in a strange economic climate. Everywhere we look, we see belts tightening out of sheer necessity. Businesses are freezing expenditures: hiring, raises, purchasing, and product development. Large corporations are going into survival mode, mothballing production facilities in the hopes that someone somewhere will do something to stop the erosion of the corporate playground. We find ourselves shadow-boxing corporate apocalypse in order to allow our businesses to survive just one more day.

We see large companies flailing in despair, reaching out for any life-saver that might be available – a government bailout, mass layoffs, and bank loans. The devices that are available, however, are only band-aid solutions that will allow these corporate entities to continue to do business-as-usual for a limited time.

Business-as-usual is not the answer.

We are standing on the crest of corporate change. That can be a terrifying place to be when there are no signs pointing to a tried-and-true path to walk. What is the answer? What is the path? Unfortunately the answer isn’t quite apparent – we haven’t done it yet. We have the ability to shape the future of our economy right at this very minute. We have the ability to build our own corporate playground. We have the responsibility to take the first step forward in a direction – any direction – and allow our actions to define the way that we, Corporate America, does business.

That being said, we are not going to be able to move in any direction if we all bury our heads into the sand. Where should we start?

One answer is the unemployed population. The competition is so fierce in the job market that unless you have extremely strong, visible credentials, you will not be considered as a potential candidate in any field.

Joe Pulizzi, author and entrepreneur, offers some very valuable tips on setting up a solid foundation for networking efforts in his presentation 10 Steps to Personal Branding Success. The presentation is offered free of charge, and may be found at http://tinyurl.com/qajaeh.

Joe mentioned 9 key ideas:

1. Update your online profiles often. He specifically recommended Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

2. In addition to a frequent and consistent blog, he suggested commenting on other’s blogs (which will then link back to your sites) and answering online questions. Joe suggested LinkedIn Answers and Yahoo Answers as possible places to search for questions to answer.

3. Write a Book.

4. Create and distribute content of interest to your customers, employers, friends, and fellow networkees.

5. Write for everyone, no matter how big or how small.

6. Become active in 2 – 3 professional associations.

7. Fill the role of public speaker as often as possible.

8. Watch your Google profile. You are who Google says you are.

9. Get behind one Charity/cause.

These 9 steps are not a guaranteed path to finding your dream job, becoming successful, or asking out the girl of your dreams. Instead, this is a starting point, the beginning of a path that you can walk. Where you take it is up to you.

Hard work always pays off.

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