Category Archives: Self Development

7 Principles of Relationships

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I had the opportunity to see Rita Goodroe (@ritagoodroe), business and relationship coach, speak on “Relationships Drive Success” at the Community Business Partnership (CBP) First Friday event. I attended the event because CBP puts on good events and I hadn’t done much networking in a couple of weeks. I was not familiar with Mrs. Goodroe and was a tad concerned about the direction this topic could take. Mrs. Goodroe had great energy, and gave very practical and down to earth advice. A major theme revolved around action so I thought I would share Mrs. Goodroe’s 7 principles on relationships and share their application to my life.

Before I dive into the 7 principles, let’s review relationships. We all have a pretty instinctive understanding of when they go really wrong, but we don’t generally think of what makes really good ones. Great relationships are ones where you can relax. You don’t work too hard, you don’t overthink it. You enjoy it and thrive in it. That said, do you associate relationships with things other than people? Mrs. Goodroe points out our relationships we have with money, time, yourself, business as well as those you have with others. I would say some of those relationships are even stronger than the ones you have with others.

Now that I left you with that food for thought, we can dive into the 7 principles of relationships.

1. Mindset is everything – Thoughts lead to feelings which lead to actions which lead to results. Make sure you have thoughts that lead to actions. At the end of the day, it’s the curse of the self-fulfilling prophecy. If you didn’t get a good night’s sleep and wake up grumpy, you may see the grumpiness in everything. This might be as simple as seeing the overcast, low 80-degree weather as another reason to bring sadness to your day. It could be that the last 10 days were over 100 degrees and this overcast cool day was a perfect break.

I have quite 3 professional jobs since I graduate from college. One in 2001, one in 2011 and one in 2015. Some might argue that it was wise to quit the first two at the time I did given we were in the middle of the dotcom bust and a recession. For me, it was never a concern. I always knew that I would land on my feet and find a new opportunity. The alternative of staying in positions or with companies that wasn’t the right fit and suffering through my own unhappiness seemed so much more daunting and unreasonable.

2. Know your value, know your worth – It’s pretty common to underestimate your own value and worth. Unfortunately, if you act in a way that does not demonstrate your value or worth, you will probably end in a situation where you are unhappy. This might be you negotiating on rates and ending up with the wrong client. If you are not confident, the people you interact with will know and will treat you respectively.

In the late 1990s I was approached by a family friend to work at a dotcom startup. He offered me $8/hour. I was already waitressing and had another internship on Capitol Hill making $10/hour. This additional job just didn’t make any sense for me unless I was making at least $10/hour. I knew the value that was able to bring and knew what made logical sense for me at the time. The family friend was a bit put off by my initial push-back but has since hired me multiple times and become a long-time mentor. Had I accepted the lower hourly rate, I would have been frustrated and probably would have ultimately quit the lowest paying job I had at the time.

3. Establish boundaries and don’t compromise – I think we all have heard this one quite a bit, but I think as woman it can be very difficult to adhere to. As humans, we all want to be wanted so when we get approached with any offer, it’s hard to take a step back to think about it, before immediately just accepting it. If you compromise your principles and let your boundaries be trampled, you will always be at the whim of someone else. You need to stay true to your goals.

My family has a busy life. My husband and I run a consulting business, so I’m managing day to day operations and out networking while he is the primary billable resource. Time is money for him. This means he has to choose his extracurricular activities very carefully. I then must also pick up the slack for cooking dinner, shopping, and transporting our kids to their myriad of activities including karate, ice hockey and soccer. I am also active in a Women in Technology professional organization and sit on the board of the WIT Education Foundation. But I know my boundaries. I do not volunteer as team mom on any of our kids’ teams as I believe we fulfill our contribution with my husband as coach. Additionally, when I’m approached about other volunteer opportunities, I gracefully decline.

4. Put yourself out their more – Networking and “free education based marketing” are two really useful means for building your business. Speak, blog, participate in communities and meet new people. It’s important to approach these opportunities with your eyes open and thinking about how you add value for others. The more you provide to others, the more it will come back to you (eventually).

This one is hard for me. I’m definitely an introvert and need to rejuvenate alone with a book after each in person networking event. It’s something I work on everyday. While I have been on LinkedIn and have grown my connections there, I was never a big contributor. I only joined Twitter and Facebook in 2012. I did it for a purpose. Actually there were 2: figure out what it was all about and put myself out their for 2 projects I was working on – a women in tech job fair and a food blog. While I’m not as active on my food blog, I did start contributing on this one. I don’t know too many followers, but am working on building a community.

5. Make it about them, not you – You already know all there is to know about you, so spend your time learning about them. It doesn’t have to be business related. Ask about the last book they read or vacation they took. You learn a lot more about the person you are talking to, and do more to build a real connection than you would if you only asked about their business and only looked for useful tips for yourself.

Again, this is one that I’m still working on. It’s not asking the initial question, but continuing the conversation on or transitioning off that don’t come as smooth for me. I will say that some of my most unlikely friends came from having interactions that had nothing to do with business. It might be the older neighbor down the street, or the parents of the child at the daycare who just happens to be your daughter’s exact age and now 16 years later is still considered her oldest friend. If it was all about me, then these relationships probably wouldn’t have happened.

6. Don’t be attached to the outcome – This is very much about perspective. If you are constantly worried that someone won’t like you or aren’t looking for the common ground, then your outcome is probably pretty precarious. If you change your thinking a bit and ask the question “why did this person cross my path?”, you might just be surprised by the answer.

Since I quit my prior job in March to pursue my business full-time, I have been taking a broader view of networking. I’ve tried several new events and approached them with an open mind. While not all the formats were right for me, I did end up meeting interesting people at all of them. I’ve convinced myself that I just need to pull on my big girl pants and go talk to some new people.

7. Every “no” brings you closer to “yes” – As you approach new or difficult situations, look for the lesson or contribution. It’s important here to look at both what you did well, but also what you can improve on. What can I do differently to get a different outcome?

Ultimately, this is the culmination of the 6 principles. If you approach life with a positive mindset, know your value & worth so you can set boundaries while putting yourself out there more, focusing on the people you meet (and how you can help them), but no becoming attached to the outcome, you will be one step closer to your goal.

Every time I’ve met someone for lunch or coffee, or attended a new networking event, I’ve stayed true to the fact that regardless of the outcome of any discussions, I’ve taken our business one step closer to where it needs to be. In the course of conversation, people have asked about me and I’ve been able to share what we are doing. They may not need those services, or there may not be a long-term connection with the people I met, but it is one more person who knows what we are doing. We are just starting out, so exposure is as important as any thing else we are doing.

As Mrs. Goodroe reminded us all on Friday, I will remind you today: It is not enough to have just read this post. You must take action. Stop saying “you can’t” (i.e. I can’t…because I don’t have any time). Recognize how your actions impact your goals. If you don’t like what you see, then change it.

Agile and #ILookLikeAnEngineer and the perception of things

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I’m struck this week by the perception of things. This is not an unusual state for me as often I’m perceived as something different than what I am. My husband often tells people he is married to a West Indian woman. This creates some startling responses when those same people meet me for the first time. The general assumption is that I’m a black woman, so when they are presented with a blue eyed, blonde, very pale white woman, there is a bit of confusion. In addition, I am also 5’4 tall and average sized with an exercise of choice is Kempo (karate) and have earned my second degree black belt. Just another example of conflicting perception versus reality.

As a technical project manager, I am always interested in learning about new techniques and methodologies so like most of us, am familiar with Agile Development methodologies. It strikes me as interesting that many people and organizations will say “they do agile.” Agile is an adjective defined by Merriam Webster as “able to move quickly and easily” or ” having a quick resourceful and adaptable character.” How does one then “do agile?” I understand employing some specific components of agile methodologies, or working towards becoming agile. Organizations would be a whole lot better off if they stopped worrying about doing agile and actually started working towards becoming agile.

This week I was struck but yet another campaign about women in tech and what it means to be an engineer. These types of conversations always frustrate me a bit. I fully consider myself a women in technology, regardless of the fact that I’ve approached it from a business perspective. I’m raising two daughters, one who is very interested and one who doesn’t know she’s interested yet. “An engineer” or “to engineer” all relate to skillful or clever delivery of plans. While I will not minimize the effort it takes to obtain a engineering degree, the engineering mindset is definitely more than a degree.

I did participate in the #ILookLikeAnEngineer campaign, posting photos of both my daughters today. My youngest is very crafty, often coming up with elaborate stories for dolls and creating amazing worlds in Minecraft (parkour courses, stables with fancy armor, and star trek doors to her fancy chateaus). She also is learning to program so she can create games and websites on the topics she likes. We’ve been spending the summer tinkering with old laptops, assembling wooden model skulls and have plans for making cheese, soap, roominate assembly and arduino programming.

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As I have written about before, my older daughter sits on the periphery of STEM. While she has never expressed an interest in learning to program, or really anything mom and dad were doing. That said, when we proposed a summer internship working for her parents’ consulting company; learning about programming, social media (for business) and using “big data” techniques and software to predict who wins next year’s stanley cup, she accepted the challenge with open eyes.

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All of these are indicative of a larger problem. To make assumptions based on first impressions is harmful to us all. It is within our best interest to approach each situation with an open mind. Be observant; see what the reality looks like, hear what is being said, and then make your assessment.

My first Drupal GovCon

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I went to my first Drupal conference Drupal GovCon, last week. I have been to other conferences, primarily on the vendor side, but this was the first one I went solely as an attendee. Carson (my husband) is an expert in content management systems and has been working with Drupal for quite a while. I have never worked with it, but since we are highlighting it as a core competency of Digital Ambit I thought it was time to get some more exposure. I had 3 goals for the conference: give back to the Drupal community; make some of my own contacts in the Drupal community; and expand my technical knowledge of Drupal.

Unfortunately, I got called to an on-sight client meeting on the first day of Drupal GovCon. I was disappointed to miss Angie Byron‘s (webchick), keynote on Drupal 8. Not only is she iconic in the Drupal community, I’m sure it would have done a bit to lessen the knowledge gap. I had also hoped to catch Forum One’s Drupal 8 for non-developers. That didn’t work out either. It’s a good thing all the sessions were recorded so I can catch up on everything I missed.

I did make it to the opening reception. I met some nice folks from 4Site Studios and reconnected with Sleight-of-Hand Studios. We had some pleasant conversations about the highlights I missed as well as discussing our respective businesses.

Day 2 and 3 started early for me with my volunteer stints at the registration desk. Due to the venue, this was a free event. This resulted in quite a few no-shows, late additions and tickets transfers. There were hiccups, as there are always are, but we worked through them. I met some really passionate organizers who put on a really good event.

The day 2 keynote was a general discussion on open source, including advocates of civiCRM and joomla. The day 3 keynote showcased how Drupal was being used for the NIH 3D print exchange. I did end up making it some sessions, but primarily stayed to the business track. I may have done this because this is the track I feel most comfortable. In retrospect, I probably should have gone to a few more of the technical Drupal ones. Each session was identified as beginner, intermediate or advanced. I had some initial concerns that some of the more technical Drupal sessions were going to be beyond my expertise (having never touched Drupal before). When Carson asked me to attend the intermediate Drupal site auditing session, I found out that those descriptors had more to do with general technology familiarity rather than Drupal itself. With the exception of a few specific Drupal modules, I followed the presentation.

Ultimately, I view the entire experience as a positive one. I learned a few things too.

1) Be confident in my general technical knowledge – As I approach new technologies, I need to remember that I have ~20 years of experience working in and around technology. While I haven’t had my hands in every new software that’s been introduced, I can have the technical knowledge and skills to be able to understand the framework’s and follow the discussion. While I’m not ready to spin up my first Drupal site yet, I feel comfortable that I could  figure it out if I needed to and most definitely could manage a Drupal implementation or migration.

2) Participating in after hours networking is critical – When you attend conferences as a vendor, or simply as an attendee, you have an agenda. There is some list of goals you are trying to fulfill. It may be education, or it may be finding employee candidates or business partners. Regardless, you have limited time to really get to know people during the day. The after hours networking is where you have that extra time to ask more questions, and find more common ground. Having been on the vendor side, I know how much work it is to host those events. Please know that they are worth it and all the attendees appreciate it.

3) Open source is more than the technology, it’s the community – Carson learned this lesson at Drupalcon LA. It was the first time he attended Drupalcon on the side of the business (versus as a developer) and he was really blown away by how open the business leaders were about sharing their processes and KPIs. It’s one thing to hear about it, but it’s another to experience it. NIH provided the venue, but required the event be free. Lots of people gave a lot of time to organize Drupal GovCon. And even more shared their time and expertise to host sessions or run all-day trainings.

4) DC has women in tech – For all that I’ve shared about women in tech, I was really excited to see how many turned out to represent at Drupal GovCon. I believe that there were definitely more than the industry average of ~22% in attendance. Maybe it was the “free” component, but I don’t think so as I have been at other free tech events and not seen the same turn out. Or maybe, it was just that this was an awesome event and they had to be a part of it. Whatever it was, I was happy to see it and be a part of it.

Just take a stand!

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For as long as I can remember, I’ve been willing to make a decision. The decisions I make are not life or death decisions. I guess this probably makes it easier for me. However, I would say that few people are truly in a position where there decision is going to make a difference between life or death. Yet, I continue to be surprised by people drag out decisions, even the ones that are seemingly insignificant.

Last week I was talking to an independent sales rep for a personal and professional retainer-based service. This service is applicable to many people and is very reasonably priced for individuals, families or small businesses. It also requires no contract, believing that the value of the service will become evident and you will continue on a month to month basis. The sales rep commented about how difficult a decision this was for people.

In another conversation yesterday, I was talking to someone who oversees a team of consultants and project managers. This team is managing a very large number of customers and projects, but often the senior manager has to step in to an escalation situation. For the many of these, he’s is simply reiterating the delivery message around when the work will be started and completed. It became evident in the conversation that the project managers were very hesitant to communicate bad news, or make decisions on prioritizations.

In my customer facing roles, this was never an issue. I understood enough about the business to make a decision, and communicate that decision to both customers and management. I often presented the decision I was going to make, with all the applicable ramifications to management and confirmed their support. I could then effectively manage the communication to the customer. If a customer pushed back on the message, I was able to re-evaluate and re-engage the internal resources to see if any adjustments could be made. At this point, it was helpful to have a senior manager along to show support for the decisions.

The inability to make a decision and move forward is something I see in my teenage daughters as well. For them I suspect it has more to do with confidence than anything else. It is definitely something we are working to take steps to overcome. We talk about decisions (good and bad) and propose other solutions that would have been better. We encourage them to write stories and make little decisions that impact their lives.

When you get presented with that next decision, take a stand. If you can articulate your reasoning when you need to, chances are it will turn out fine. If it turns out that your decision was the best one, then use that knowledge the next time you make a decision. You will only be able to make better decisions by making them. In the broader scheme of things, that one decision will not be significant.

Is it bad to be smart?

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I started writing this blog post about a year go. At the time, I had just come across a blog that introduced the idea that in business it is bad to be described as smart (In business, it’s actually a bad thing to be called smart). The author differentiated that it wasn’t about just being smart, but “being smart as your primary value.”  His premise was that people who were smart or talented as a primary value tend to get exploited more than anything else. “To call someone smart implies their other skills don’t measure up and, in business, people want solutions that work and productive relationships, neither of which require intelligence. What people usually describe as intelligence is what I call abstract problem solving.”

At first I was a little taken aback by this notion.  In general, I highly regard intelligence.  I have surrounded myself with smart people.  Not all of these people could be considered rocket scientists (although that applies to some), but they have intelligence across many different facets of life and have proven that time and time again. After I thought about it some more, I do get the point the author was trying to make. Being smart is just not enough. If someone is solely smart, they are marginalized to only the tasks that keep him/her in a bubble. Generally, we don’t want to interact with someone who can’t interact with us in return.

A good friend from graduate school coined the term “stupid smart” for people who were too smart for their own good. It describes people with high intelligence, but not enough common sense or other redeeming qualities. We often used this phrase to define personal decisions where we had overthought; missing a fairly simple ,often better solution.

At the end of the day, I want to be seen as someone who gets the job done well. This may mean solely managing it day to day, or getting my hands dirty to delivery. My passion lies in solving complex business problems leveraging different technologies. While that might make me smart, I do think there are adjectives I would rather see used to describe me first.

 

Are you truly confident?

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I recently met up with a friend who I have known for almost 20 years now.  I consider this woman very successful.  She grew up in NJ and has degrees from Duke University and a law degree from University of Pennsylvania.  Since she got her law degree, she spent 7 years at a top law firm and then she was corporate counsel at a Fortune 100 company.  My friend just started a new job for a global company that is considered one of the most admired in the US. What struck me as most interesting this visit is when she acknowledged doubts recently about whether she could do this most current role.  Not only is this women smart and talented, she is also the epitome of a confidence, social butterfly.  Of all my friends or colleagues who have doubts about themselves, I would never have considered that this applied to this friend too.  My friend’s experiences align pretty closely to what I have been reading about women in technology, leaning in and other topics at the forefront of my interests.

This also very much ties into a book I just finished and a keynote that one of the authors just gave at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Center for Women in Business “The Science of Success” Conference.  Claire Shipman, author of The Confidence Code gave a great overview of a challenge that definitely exists for Women, in technology and other industries.  I had purchased the book prior to seeing Mrs. Shipman speak, but didn’t read it until afterwards.  This is a compilation of my thoughts on the book and notes from her speech.

I think it is now common knowledge that diversity is key and that soft skills are becoming more and more important in the workplace.  There was an HP experiment conducted that highlights the confidence gap.  Women tend to apply for jobs where they have 100% of the skills required for the job, while men apply for jobs when they have 60% of the skills required.  Another research study at Berkeley shows that confidence is a better measure of success than competence.  Women tend to hyper focus on competence.  If this is the case and women are so focused on being competent that we’ll only stretch ourselves when we believe we have met 100% of the requirements, those opportunities just may not be available for us.  It’s imperative that women start treating confidence like a skill and incorporate into our professional and personal play books.

One of the most interesting pieces of The Confidence Code was learning that confidence is at least partially hereditary.  The majority of the brain is the same between men and women.  However, women and men differ in how the brain fires its neurons and also in the risk taking versus worrying areas.  Men have more testosterone and therefore tend to take more risks while women have more estrogen and tend to overthink or ruminate preventing the brain from building the confidence.  The good news is that the significant developments in neurology have taught that we can train our brains – the science known as brain plasticity.

We should not get too bogged down in blaming our genetics as there are also societal impacts that influence confidence in girls.  We subconsciously initiate the confidence gap for girls by raising our girls to be perfectionists and people pleasers.  Girls are taught to follow the rules, be good listeners and do what they are told.  Boys are given a bit more leeway to try things, take risks and ultimately fail.  Ultimately as women transition from school into the workplace, it becomes very difficult for them.  They are still seeking the rewards and praise they got in school, whereas the workplace is really recognizing the confidence, risk taker who is willing to take on increasingly more responsibility.

There are a few recommendations for what we can do differently.

  • Fail fast – do, learn, move on.  Start acclimating yourself to risk taking.
  • Act more, think less – ruminate less. Come up with an explanation that is not a failing on your part.
  • Be authentic – this is critical.
  • Play competitive sports – there is a huge link between confidence in girls and competitive sports.  Not everyone is a winner.  You need to work hard, develop competency and ultimate become confidence.

Confidence is what turns your thoughts into action.

 

What color are the glasses of your perception?

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Miriam-Webster defines perception as the way you think about someone or something; the way that you notice or understand something using one of your senses.  I have had several recent conversation related to perception and having been thinking how that plays into business relationships and context.  

The first was how you are perceived by others and whether you need to change some of those perceptions to move forward in life.  I was asked to come up with 3-5 perceptions that other people have about me.  I used “cold/unfriendly” as one of those perceptions.  In actuality, I’m cautious when getting to know people.  It takes me a little while to get used to new people and open up.  Once you get to know me, you find I’m willing to talk about anything and I will be incredibly loyal.  I can see how that can be perceived as cold or unfriendly.  Ultimately, I am aware of this perception, but have chosen that caution and loyalty in the beginning works well for me right now.

The second related to how different stakeholders perceived a project status.  Some felt that nothing had been done and interest was faltering by the new users.  While there had been some issues in the project implementation that caused some delays, the implementation had actually progressed and lots of work was being done to resolve the open issues.  While both sides had responsibility for the project state, the perception of the situations were very different.

Perception comes into play every day, in every personal or professional situation.  While you aren’t necessarily going to be able to change every perception, you do need to be conscious about how others are going to perceive a situation.  Each one will be tinted by their individuals experiences.  Keep in mind that all perceptions are rooted in grains of truth.  Use this to guide your responses and actions when there are differences in perceptions.

 

 

Do you Reward Ingenuity or Punish Bad Behavior?

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This post is inspired by an incident with my 11 year old daughter.  She took an alternate bus from school into a neighborhood that was not ours, and then walked to her friend’s house.  She had the wherewithal to take her cell phone to school (despite family rules against it) and inform me where she was.  Neither her friend nor his parents were at home.  My daughter was quite a surprise to her friend’s grandmother when she arrived home.  It just so happened that grandma had picked up her grandson early from school and heading to the house.  On a normal afternoon, nobody would have gotten home until much later.

When we were having our family meeting, it was an interesting quandary for us.  Do you reward the ingenuity of my daughter being able to bypass the order and rules of school dismissal, in order to navigate a bus system other than her own and then successfully make her way to her friends house in a neighborhood she does not know? Or do you punish her for going somewhere without permission and taking her cell phone to school when she was not supposed to?  Ultimately we decided just to remind her why we have rules and what could have happened her.  We discussed trust, and how you earn it or lose it based on your behavior.  We also took away her electronics for a short time, while she worked on proving her trustworthiness.

While I was sharing this story with fellow co-workers, I realized how applicable this scenario was in business.  As a manager and leader I strive for my team to find creative solutions and push the limits.  I want my team to feel comfortable making mistakes and learning from them.  It makes them better employees and helps them grow personally and professionally.  This does mean you can miss the learning opportunities. It is imperative for the organization and the team member to understand the expectations, and the challenges that the deviation caused.  You can do this by acknowledging and praising the good points, and redirecting the energy and focus to learning from the conflict.

 

What I learned on my run about working through tough situations

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We all have all been in situations where things aren’t going your way.  This could simply be a single thing that sets you off, but more often one becomes two becomes three.  When this occurs it’s very hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Everything is shrouded in a veil of negativity with no end in sight.

During these times, it is important to find one grain of positivity.  It could be as simple as acknowledging the beautiful day outside, or buying yourself a bouquet of flowers, or snuggling in the corner with a hot cup of tea and a good book.  These grains of light produce the energy for the next one.

I had this epiphany the other day while I was on my run.  I’m not a runner, but sometimes when it’s been a tough week and I feel I need to push myself and get some exercise, I will run.  I don’t run races and generally prefer to run alone.  I can comfortably run between 2 and 5 miles, and at the end of the day, I know I can walk myself home.  My coping mechanism for making it through my runs involves looking for the next immediate milestone.  This is usually a tree, street sign, fence post, etc.  I always have enough energy to make it to that next marker and once you string lots of markers together, you make it home.

I’m convinced that I can apply this to those situations where I sense myself getting frustrated after multiple frustrating things have piled up.  I just need to find that one moment of sanity and comfort and convince myself that I can make it to the next one.  This challenge is short lived  and can be overcome, just as the next one can and the next one. Before I know it, I’ve pushed through to a better, stronger place.

Technology and the Job Search

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Today I had the pleasure of participating in a panel discussion on using social media to find a job.  I took a slightly different approach and wanted to highlight what is going on in the job market related to employment and skills from both a job seeker and recruiter awareness perspective.  Additionally, I wanted to provide some concrete tips to attendees on using technology to stand out, which could have immediate impact.  This post is my general commentary to go along with the slide deck (posted up on slideshare: Technology and the Job Search).

What’s wrong with the job economy?  It is a fact that the economy is growing very slowly, which means people are getting jobs slowly and the unemployment rate is stagnating.  It is also a fact that this breeds frustration.  We see and hear this constantly, from friends or associates who are actively searching.  Yet we also hear from companies who insist that they cannot find qualified candidates. Something has to be able to explain it.  Is it:

  • Unreasonable expectations?

There is an abundance of information easily available today.  Jobs are posted online and off.  Have we made it so easy to find and apply for jobs that we no longer spend the time to find the right opportunities?  In “Why you Keep Applying for the Wrong Jobs”, Vivian Giang wrote “Job Seekers spend an average of 49.7 seconds deciding that a job isn’t right for them, and an average of 76.7 seconds if they feel the posting matches their interest and skills.  They were only able to identify good fits at a rate of 38%.”  This might help account for why hundreds of resumes are being submitted for each job and why you might not have gotten that call back. 

This is not to say that job seekers maintain all the fault here.  Job titles vary wildly and job descriptions can be quite cumbersome and difficult to discern what you will actually need to do. Furthermore, recruiters are making decisions even more rapidly.  They are only spending 6-7 seconds on resumes or online profiles (Weber).  70% have passed on candidates because of what they find online (Hopkins 06/18/13).

  • Fictional jobs?

After seeing the same job posted on 3 different job boards, linkedin, twitter and the company site for months, you start to think that these jobs do not really exist.  This is especially true in DC, where so many companies are government contractors.  You start believing that this were listed to solely collect resumes or meet government requirements.  I suspect some of that is true.  But, I also suspect that the jobs exist and in many cases, are being filled.  They are just being filled by internal transitions or lateral job moves. According to Lou Adler (“Hire Economics” 6/12/13), 45% of jobs are being filled by networking and an additional 10% by internal moves.  My experience tells me jobs are out there.  The challenge is finding the right job through the right person, at the right time.  80% of jobs are found through networking (Hopkinson 6/18/13).

  • Skills gaps?

While I do think parts of the country suffer incredibly from the skills gap, as a whole I believe there are people who have the skills to fill open jobs.  This gets complicated by many of the issues raised above.

How should technology play into your job search?

This is the fundamental question.  Technology is a tool, that if used correctly, can help you.  The opposite is true as well – If you use technology incorrectly, it will hinder you and in some case severely hurt you.

  • Research

We have a wealth of information at our finger tips.  Corporate websites give you a wealth of information about what companies do, but sites like LinkedIn, Glassdoor and others provides you that endorsement of the organization by others.  You should be heavily relying on your network, through LInkedIn and Twitter to keep up to date on industry and organization changes.  These are great ways to figure out where organizations are going to be available for those one-on-one interactions (job fairs, forums, open houses, etc). 

You may also want to come at this from the opposite angle as well.  Look to your network for feedback and commentary about organizations they are interacting.  You may find an interest somewhere outside the scope of where you might be inclined to look.

  • Cultivate your online presence

Your online presence is an extension of you.  It is what people can find after interacting with you.  This could have been as a result of a meeting, hearing you ask a question at an event, an interview, your resume, etc.  This is your opportunity to influence your network and showcase your skills and expertise.  Do this as much or as little as you want.  Start by figuring out how you want to present yourself.  Make sure it aligns with your skills, but plan for the opportunity you want, not your position today.

Next figure out how much you want to invest.  It is time consuming to manage your social presence. The more you participate across LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc the more difficult it becomes.  I have made a personal decision that LinkedIn is where I share industry information related to what I am specifically doing and management or business articles that I think my network would find interesting.  I have joined groups related to my current or former professional experience  (i.e. consumer product goods, alumni groups, technology, innovation) as well as my external interests (i.e. my association to Women in Technology “WIT” and role as Co-Chair of Workforce Development as it relates to job groups).  I am also on Twitter, but I use that to primarily share my interests of women & girls in technology, and startups.  In both, I highlight upcoming events mostly related to WIT.  These are things that interest me as a professional, but are not what I am looking to showcase as my primary focus.  I’m first a technology & operations executive who is interested in issues impacting women & girls and startups.

The most important thing you can do is google yourself.  See what comes up!  Hopefully it will be you and it will be something positive.  One simple thing you can do to improve these results is to make sure you are customizing everything.  Take advantage of LinkedIn’s custom URL instead of the random alpha-numeric assignment.  Use your name in your email domain, blog, and social media sites. 

  • Tag cloud generators

This is my geeky tip for the day, and one of the best pieces of advice I have seen.  If you google “tag cloud generator” you will find all these free web apps that will allow you to plug in content and it will give you a visual representation of words in the content, highlighting the most frequently used words as compared to the least frequent.  This will allow you to look at a single job description and figure out what the “right” key words are, in order to customize your resume and improve your probability of being looked.  I can also see this as a means of looking at several different job descriptions for the same general position and figuring out how to position yourself – what skills do you highlight; what topics do you focus your time on to showcase your expertise.

The bottom line

At the end of the day, technology is merely a tool to help you.  It will not solve all your problems.  It can enhance your position, showcase your expertise and keep your skills fresh on your network’s mind.  According to Lou Adler (“Hire Economics” 6/12/13), you should “spend 20% of the time responding to job postings by going through the back door rather than applying through the front, another 20% ensuring your resume and LinkedIn profile are easy to find and worth reading, and the remaining 60% networking to find jobs in the hidden market.”

Please remember to respect yourself and your network.  Don’t tell me what you had for breakfast or the big party you threw last weekend.  Provide me with valuable information and insights.  Initiate contact with new people you meet but make sure to give them a point of reference and guidance on why you want to connect.  You should extend this same thoughtfulness around those who ask you to connect.  Do not just accept everyone.  Associate yourself with people you want to be associated with.