September 2013 |
Transition-e-news Volume 3 Issue 86 |
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Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to Hire Over 800 Veterans as Peer Specialists and Peer Support Apprentices by December 31, 2013. Make a difference in the lives of your fellow Veterans! VA is hiring over 800 Veterans to work as Peer Specialists and Peer Support Apprentices. To qualify, you must be a United States Veteran who has recovered or is recovering from a mental health condition. Completion of an approved peer specialist training program is also required. Click here for more information and to apply. |
The Other Side of the Fence© Tom Wolfe, author; all rights reserved; excerpts from Out of Uniform: Your Guide to a Successful Military-to-Civilian Career Transition; used with the permission of the author and publisher, www.potomacbooksinc.com. With all of the uncertainty that surrounds the transition from a military to a civilian career, one thing that is certain is the high likelihood that you must continue to work. Career transition is a stressful time for most people and that is particularly true for those in transition from the military to civilian status. Although the job search can be difficult for civilians, they at least know the terminology and the titles. Military-to-civilian job seekers on the other hand not only have to deal with the stress of the search but also the lack of knowledge about career options and job titles. How about you? Are you wrestling with that uncertainty and wondering what to do next? That is perfectly normal. Take some comfort in knowing that thousands of veterans have dealt with that stress successfully and you will also. What jobs are available? The good news is there are hundreds of companies hiring thousands of people like you into jobs with hundreds of possible job titles. The bad news is that there are far too many of them to cover here. I can however discuss the three general categories of jobs available and in so doing perhaps give you some insight into which category is best for you. Every one of those jobs can be categorized in one of three ways: Individual Contributor, Team Member, and Team Leader. Furthermore, every job you have held in the military can be similarly categorized and a comparative analysis will do much to point you in the right direction. An Individual Contributor is one whose contribution to the mission comes directly from that individual. The work product is his or hers alone. He or she is not directing the efforts of others. The blood, sweat and tears are those of the individual. Do not however confuse individual contributors with loners. Individual contributors can have much interaction with others, both internal and external to the organization — e.g., co-workers, vendors, clients, suppliers, and managers. They enjoy autonomy. They do not have to supervise others to be fulfilled. They prefer to see a direct link between their individual effort, their work product, and, perhaps, their compensation. Examples of individual contributors include tradesmen, tech reps, accountants, analysts, consultants, sales reps, designers, engineers, field service representatives, and recruiters. Sometimes a group of individual contributors band together, either formally or informally, and form a team. This leads us to the second category—Team Member. There are many situations where no one single person can handle all the responsibilities of a project or tasking. It often makes sense to put together a group of individuals to form a team. Although levels of expertise are often similar, each member has a different area of expertise and is responsible for his or her own contribution to the team as a whole. Whether or not there is a designated team leader, often an informal leader will emerge. Regardless, it is the combined, collective effort of the entire team that constitutes the contribution to the goals of the organization. An excellent analogy is the athletic team—individuals playing different positions on the team, with the goal of winning the contest. You can find examples of the team member role in matrix organizations, companies that use self-directed work teams, product development, and brand management. The final category, Team Leader, is the one that probably requires the least explanation. The team leader is assigned personnel, material, financial resources, and a task. The areas and levels of expertise among the team members vary. The team leader builds the team, trains the team, motivates the team, and provides a safe working environment. The collective efforts of the entire team under the direction and control of the team leader become the contribution to the mission. Sound familiar? Most military personnel spend the majority of their time in team leader roles. Many civilian organizations are aware of this experience and focus on hiring veterans because of it. Some typical team leader roles include operations manager, crew leader, production team leader, and manufacturing supervisor. Which category is best for you? To answer that question, review your time in the military. You have probably held jobs in all three categories. In which ones were you the most effective? Satisfied? Happiest? Answering those questions will give you some clues. By knowing in which one you tend to thrive, you will be on your way to finding the best category for you. Although you will not necessarily be any closer to articulating exactly which job you want, you will at least be able to focus on jobs in the category or categories that are best for you. Good hunting! © 2013; Tom Wolfe, is an author, columnist, career coach, veteran, and an expert in the field of military-to-civilian career transition. During his career he assisted thousands of service members in their searches for employment, placing more than 3000 in their new jobs. Prior to civilian life, he graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy and served as a surface warfare officer. He teaches transition courses, gives seminars on career and job change, writes about the career transition process, and continues to counsel current and former military personnel. His book, Out of Uniform: Your Guide to a Successful Military-to-Civilian Career Transition, was published by Potomac Books in 2011. Tom lives on the North Carolina coast with his wife, Julie, and their Chesapeake Bay retriever, Maggie. |
Create the Ultimate LinkedIn Profile in 6 Steps
by Barbara Adams, CPRW, CEIP, MFRW, MMRW, MFCA-T With 161 million and counting members, LinkedIn is the social media platform for professionals to network online—it's one of the most popular social networks. I find that for professional social networking, LinkedIn does much more than Facebook and Twitter, but to maximize your networks, I recommend utilizing all three platforms. If you're already a LinkedIn member, are you using it to its fullest potential? Here are 6 great tips to maximize your LinkedIn profile. 1. Use a professional picture. Use a professional picture that is appropriate to send to potential employers. Despite what some people say, first impressions do count. You don’t necessarily need to have a photo of yourself in a suit, but make sure you consider your audience, branding, and what kind of message you'd like to portray when selecting a photo. Your profile picture must be square, no larger than 4MB, and formatted as a JPG, GIF, or PNG file. 2. Create a keyword-rich, customer-focused headline. Search engines crawl your LinkedIn profile. Utilize keywords that relate to your job position and/or the services your clients might search for. For example, if you’re an attorney, don't just write "lawyer." Write something a bit more interesting and descriptive that's focused on your practice area and specialization. For example, you could list general law, bankruptcy, business law, and trademark and patents. 3. Update your status. Consistently update your status on LinkedIn. These updates will appear on the homepages of all your connections. Post information related to your business, industry, and any other information your network will find useful. But don't over-promote yourself. I recommend using the 80/20 rule: 80% educate and 20% promote. Comment on other status updates, too. I always notice when one of my connections comments on my status updates because it doesn’t happen too often. This will get yourself noticed. 4. Claim your vanity URL. Make your profile easier to find and more professional with a vanity URL. Mine reads http://ca.linkedin.com/in/samanthatcollier. If I didn’t change the last part to my name, it would be a bunch of letters and numbers. Make sure you go to your profile and set up your vanity URL as soon as possible. It’s easy to do and makes you look like a LinkedIn ninja. I also recommend you place your LinkedIn URL on business cards and in emails when networking. 5. Customize your website URLs. LinkedIn gives you three website slots. Instead of using the predetermined standard text, "My Website" change the text to make the links more descriptive. If you have a blog, change the URL to the title of your blog. If you have a website, change the name to your domain. To customize your links, click "Edit" on your website links and select "Other in the dropdown menu. This will inspire potential visits if the reader is prompted with a subject. 6. Add your Twitter account information. LinkedIn allows users to share their Twitter account information on their profile. Visitors to your profile can follow you on Twitter without leaving LinkedIn. This is a definite must for the Twitter rockstars out there. I’ve followed many people on Twitter directly from their LinkedIn profiles. You can also share your LinkedIn status on Twitter, and vice versa. I don’t recommend you synchronize all your status updates, but a couple here and there should be fine. Besides, most do not want the same message coming from you on numerous accounts. Many employers search for job candidates on LinkedIn rather than Monster, CareerBuilder or other specialty websites. When CareerPro Global, Inc. is seeking to hire veterans, I always check out different military groups and then search on career field and experience. You can also ask a group member or other connection to introduce you to a particular employee. Right now, for a limited time, LinkedIn offers veterans a free one-year upgrade subscription. Click on FREE Upgrade for more information, and how to take advantage of this offer. If you do not have a LinkedIn profile developed, I highly recommend you do so. LinkedIn is a great way to network, whether you are seeking employment or marketing yourself or your company. Barbara Adams, President and CEO of CareerPro Global (CPG), the parent company of www.careerproplus.com and www.militaryresumewriters.com, has been a member of the careers community for the past 20 years. Ms. Adams holds four prestigious industry certifications. CareerPro Global is the only ISO 9001-2008 Certified Career Service in the industry, as well as one of the fastest-growing Military, Federal, and Civilian Resume-Writing and Careers-Coaching companies. The team of Certified Professional Federal and Military Resume Writers at CPG assist thousands of clients in applying for and gaining employment each year. We can help you land your military to civilian job. |
Defensive Googling in 5 Steps© Copyright, 2013, Susan P. Joyce. All rights reserved. According to a Microsoft reputation study, while only 30% of job seekers worry about their online reputations, 70% of recruiters in the USA have rejected an applicant because of what they found online…without knowing for sure that it was the job seeker they found. The names were the same, and that was enough "proof." So, even though you may be leading a blameless life, avoiding Facebook and other social media, and feel you have no reason to worry about what is online about you, you could well be wrong. The actions of someone else – who has the same name you have – could be sabotaging your job search. Recruiters who Google the name you put on their application or in your resume will be unaware that the "bad" person Google showed them is not you. Result: opportunity lost! Perhaps, many opportunities… Mistaken Online Identity Is a Major Issue – Defensive Googling Is the Solution Since the best defense is a good offense, find out what is available online related to your name. If you don’t know about it, you won’t be able to address it. When you do know about it, you can differentiate yourself from the individual(s) with the problem. 1. Search Google (and Bing) on the name(s) you have been using in your resumes, job applications, and other job search documents. You need to know if you someone who has the same name you have is causing you a problem in your job search to avoid using that version of your name. To search -
2. Carefully study the first 10 pages of search results. Look for anything negative that an employer would see associated with your name (even if it is NOT about you). This could include photos and videos as well as standard web pages, blog posts, comments on blog posts, news items, public records (like court dockets), and other information readily available online. If you find something inappropriate associated with your name – something that would make an employer put your resume in the "reject" pile rather than the "possible" pile – you have a potential problem. The problem could be someone with your name who has been arrested for drunk driving, posted inappropriate photos of themselves in social media, been accused of being a tax cheat, contributed racist, sexist, or other nasty "*ist" comments on blogs, or hundreds of other things. If that entry on the 8th page, and moving down toward the 9th, it may not be a big issue. But if it is on the first page or the second page, pay close attention. Monitor that entry. You need to find a version of your name without something bad associated with it. 3. Continue to search using different variations of your name until you find a “clean” version. A clean version of your name doesn’t have anything negative – from anyone – associated with it, but it is still your real name. Check all the versions of your name you can think of – with your middle name or middle initial, etc. My favorite example of smart name usage is the famous actor, James Earl Jones. There are probably very many people named “Jim Jones” in the world, and one is definitely infamous. But James Earl Jones is distinctive! He could have called himself “JJ,” “Jim Jones,” “Jimmy Jones,” “James Jones,” or even ”James E. Jones.” But there is no confusing him with anyone else now. He claimed a clean version of his name, and made it famous. 4. Use the clean version of your name for your job search. Pick one, clean version of your name, and use it consistently for your job search.
Keep everything "in sync" particularly in relation to your LinkedIn Profile. 5. Set up a Google Alert on all versions of your name, including the "clean" version. Keep track of what is happening to your clean name in case someone else using that name does something that makes it unusable. Google Alerts are free and will notify you when something new associated with the name appears in Google search results. Online Reputation Management Is the New Reality This is NOT "vanity Googling" This is "defensive Googling" - enlightened 21st century self-defense! Defensive Googling is just the beginning of an online reputation management program, and it shouldn’t be suspended when the job seeker has found a new job. Mistaken online identity is a permanent risk for all of us,unless we have particularly unique names. Bottom Line Mistaken online identity can cause serious problems for the innocent person who has the same name as someone who has publicly misbehaved. But, it can be managed, as long as you are aware of the situation and address it.
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