On Magic

Last year, I wrote a post about why I was going to the first ever RecruitFest. I didn’t understand it, didn’t know how many people would be there, and at the time wasn’t even sure I would stay in the Recruiting Industry in any capacity.

I went, I experienced and wrote about it here. Lots of other people went and wrote about it here. I had already been to a couple of conferences and hoped that RecruitFest would be different, and it was, for some very key reasons.

1) I was brand new. I had no idea what I was talking about but was starting to form some opinions. RecruitFest gave me the opportunity to share those opinions with others, at the same volume and on the same level with people who get paid lots of money to share their opinions.

2) My barriers were taken away. It’s easy to navigate a conference, drink in one hand, stack of business cards in another and maintain your professional decorum, feminine mystique and aloof disinterest. The same cannot be said for trying to hold a drum between your thighs and not screw up the beat in front a of a roomful of smiling (yeah! smiling) recruiters.

3) If I didn’t show up, people noticed. When there are less than a hundred people, your presence (or lack thereof) is noted. In my opinion, this creates accountability and respect. Not just for the track leaders (not speakers!) but for every person in the room with enough guts to share their opinions and thoughts.

4) No cliques. Yeah there are cliques and yeah I’m in some of them. The thing is, if you’ve not been to a lot of these things, it can be very intimidating to walk up to a group of people and stick your hand (neck) out there and ask for acceptance. At RecruitFest you can because the people there are there to build relationships.

5) You get called out. I’ll never forget Craig Silverman telling me my website sucked in front of a roomful of recruiters (Dave Perry being one of them!) I was mortified. I was embarrassed. I was…sorta pissed. BUT, I changed the website. He was right. It did suck. The fact that Craig Silverman had checked out the website of a tiny recruiting firm in Omaha, NE told me a lot about him and the world I was recruiting in.

6) Everyone was just like me. We didn’t look alike, or act alike or even have all of the same professional goals. But there was something very real that united us all. We all cared enough about what we did to make the trek to Canada, to have an open mind about a drum circle, to pay out of our pockets to be in that room, talking with one another. Even the speakers were there to learn.

Now a year (or so) later, I’m working on RecruitFest! from the inside. But I’d be going even if I wasn’t. Because the people I met for the first time last year are my friends now and in an age where my community aren’t just the people who live in close proximity to me, but my friends from different states and countries, RecruitFest takes relationship to a new level.

I’ve heard some people say they could build relationships just as easily on the phone or through video chat. Maybe that’s true. No, check that. It isn’t. Even people I’ve met at other conferences don’t have the relationship that my RF friends and I do. Because the conversations that propel that intimacy happen in the hallways, at the lunch table, on the second day when you’re all too tired to pretend to be impressive anymore. And RecruitFest is built around THOSE conversations. The ones where everyone has an equal voice, an equal say and there are no podiums or microphones. I hope you come!

Walk the Line: Finding the sweet spot between promotional and organic

There’s been some talk about transparency, authenticity and all the synonyms in between. And regardless of your personal view about any of those things and what they mean to you, the mere presence of the buzz surrounding them in everything from Inc. to CIO Magazine means that for whatever reason, their meaning or our perceived meaning of them, is important.

So as you market your business, promote your personal brand or even job hunt, you need to pay attention to walking the line. Here’s why: Half the time personal branding gurus are telling you sell yourself, promote your skills, etc. The other half the time, you’re being told to be yourself, stay in your niche, be passionate and authentic.

Walking the fine line between promotional and organic is something to pay careful attention to whether you’re a professional marketer or a regular person trying to figure out the game of social media (make no mistake, this is very much a game). For a marketer, the promotional stuff is easy. It’s what they teach you in college: write well, find the hook, build a process, distribute as fast and as loud as you can. But it’s not so obvious for the rest of us.

You’ve probably read this far hoping that I would provide some great three step process or surefire way to walk the line with social media. Sorry to disappoint. The reason this is so difficult is that it’s different for every person, company and organization. But here are some guidelines that can help you find your own personal boundaries:

1) What do you hate? Do you delete people who “pollute your twitterstream”? Does it make you angry when business connections spam you on Facebook? Do you feel business networking should involve some element of personal knowledge? Pay attention to what works ON you and FOR you when others are successfully (or not) marketing to you is a great indicator of where your comfort lines are.

2) Pay attention to what works in REAL life. We’re in lots of social situations all the time: church, school, work, sports. Would you walk up to a group of people and hand them your card and loudly proclaim yourself a guru? I hope not. You would introduce yourself at an appropriate time, listen to the conversation and see if you could add anything of interest when asked. So think about whether you would do what you’re about to do online, in real life.

3) Define your goals. This is a really tough one. Sometimes it seems like the people breaking all the rules are “winning the game”. But that’s only if you measure success by number of followers, retweets, and friends. Many might disagree with me, but I don’t think that’s a great goal. We’re so often asked for metrics and “proof” that social media works, that we latch onto the numbers as though they mean something. They don’t. If you have a defined goal (getting a new job, creating a conversation with a specific group of people, staying on the trending edge of your industry) you’ll can work out a strategy that includes actions that will lead to that goal and you’ll avoid the pitfall of thinking more @s means more influence.

4) Don’t go against your own grain. Are you a quiet person? Then don’t tweet 20 times a day because some expert told you it was smart marketing. Do you love to talk? Then nod and smile when Mr. Business hotshot tells you you’re too verbose. I understand the desire to apply a process more than anyone out there but trying to be something you’re not always plays as false.

5) Count to 20. I never do this but it’s good advice. When I would play outside as a kid, I never wanted to go inside to the bathroom. My fear was mom would see me and tell me to come in for the night. So no matter how badly I had to go, I would stop and count to 20. It worked most of the time. When you’re in a “comment war” or chat session or about to tweet or blog something that makes your stomach feel funny. Count to 20. Count to 50. And then…walk the line.

That’s not an acceptable answer

It is a running joke between my husband and me, that I am incapable of answering “I don’t know” to any question posed to me. Even if I clearly do NOT know, I will guess, or make up a theory, or at least try to come up with an answer. It irritates him (and likely other people who don’t love me enough to say that I am irritating them) because sometimes people ask a question simply so they can tell you the answer. Or maybe to move along a story, or to clarify a point. But, in my adult time on this earth, I have learned that people rarely want to wait around for you to sit and think and dig around in the root of the words to see if you can figure the puzzle out witout their help.

If you’re wondering why I’m like this, here’s the reason. Every time we got into trouble as kids, Mom would say: “WHY did you do that?” and we would (predictably) say: “I don’t know” and then she would say “That is not an acceptable answer”. In essence she was forcing us to examine what drove us to an act of definace, disobedience or downright idiocy. It was a good lesson. Falling back on apathy or disinterest is not something that was allowed in our family and is rarely tolerated if you want to succeed in life anyway.

So my annoying habit actually has roots in a good lession. Here’s why I think saying “I don’t know” is not an acceptable answer:

Sometimes it’s the path of least resistance. This makes it easy to shrug off things that are hard or not fun or less than our “passion”.

If not followed up with a desire to FIGURE IT OUT, it’s just apathetic. It indicates a lack of desire to learn.

It keeps you from having to examine your issues. Why don’t you know?

Here’s why I think “I don’t know” is an acceptable answer:

It can indicate humility.

It’s honest. Sometimes you really don’t know.

It can be a catalyst to have someone wiser explain it to you.

It flies in the face of the expert/guru/genius flu that’s been going around lately.

What do you say when someone asks you a question? Do you try to figure it out? Do you let them explain it? Do you say “I don’t know”?

Treat your job search like a. . .job search

There’ve been a few (very good) posts floating around lately about how to treat your job search:

like a wedding (I would never do this because then my mother would be intimately involved in my job search and that is no bueno)

like a marathon (This is a no-brainer, marathons are very hard and very long and involve spandex. Who besides Lance Armstrong wears spandex?)

like an advertising campaign (who’s paying for all this anyway?)

like it’s yogurt (wait, lemme guess, get some culture?)

like a zombie (well, that’s pretty cool.)

And if that helps you, great. But sometimes, it’s really important to treat your job search like a job search. I know that there are still a lot of people out of a job and sometimes the desire is to do the shiny thing, the new thing, the cool thing. Instead of these (very boring) things:

- Figure your shtuff out. So many job seekers wound up at their position unintentionally. They don’t really know how to manage but their job title has manager in it, so they think they need to look there. Nope. Figure out what it was you did at your last job and the job before that, figure out which of those things you actually liked doing and which you were good at and then write that out. That is your new job description.

- Go beyond what you think you know. Chances are if you can do your job satisfactorily, you can do a harder job with more responsibility even better. It takes hard work and a willingness to learn. Even (GASP!) on your own time. News flash people! Work doesn’t exist to educate you. Education exists to educate you. Work is where you do things for money and if you have a good work ethic, you do them well and you learn more things because you are not a moron and know that no job lasts forever.

- Figure out where you fit. Just because a company has 20 openings that you can accomplish doesn’t mean you should apply for them all. And just because another company where you would be a perfect match doesn’t have any openings at all doesn’t mean you should rule them out. I’ll tell you a little something about job boards for the job seeker. They make you lazy. When applying for jobs becomes as easy as turning on a light, then you show your ignorance by getting crazy in the candy store. Ask yourself: Where do I want to work? What do I want to do there? Am I qualified enough for that? How can I get them to pay attention to me?

-Be serious. If you don’t think it’s important enough to ask these questions of yourself, spend time crafting and recrafting your resume, customize a cover letter for every job and network for a few months, then why should a potential employer take you seriously? This is a big decision for both of you, although it frequently feels like the company holds all the cards. Taking your job search seriously involves invoking one of the oldest similes (cuz it’s the truest): Treat your job search like a job. Because it is one. You don’t find a job and work, you don’t get paid. The end.

-Determined, not depserate. I think parents have a bit easier time of it when it comes to job seeking. They know that no matter what, they HAVE to get a job, because even if they are willing to eat Ramen, there’s no way Junior’s giving up Fruit by the Foot. This is a powerful motivator. Well, that and the idea that your family might be living out of the leased minivan if you don’t step it up. So be determined by all means: to get that second interview, to follow up with a call, to explain how you’re the absolute best person for the job. But desperation is a fragrant thing, so keep it at bay by knowing ahead of time what you absolutely WILL DO to feed yourself and your family and what you WILL NOT DO. This way, if and when you accept a mid level position when you’re used to the C-Level, it won’t be desperate but an optional part of the plan.

Hmmm, as I read through this I know it sounds a little harsh. I’m sorry. I’m currently developing a crankypants series of blogs and this must be included.