Brian Solis, new media expert and best selling author, has observed what he refers to as Digital Darwinism, when society and technology evolve faster than the ability to adapt. Certainly, businesses are struggling to adapt but what about Career Professionals?

Social Media has Changed Everything

Web 2.0, social media, mobile technologies, and the ability to analyze massive amounts of new data to discover new correlations, patterns, and insights have fundamentally changed business.  Certainly, these examples have had a huge impact on society as evidenced by the growing amount of people who have access to the internet, engage on social media platforms, and make decisions based on their circles of influence online.  Businesses now have listening command centers to monitor social media channels and jobs such as Community Manager and Social Media Specialist now exist when they didn’t just a few years ago. Consider how consumers now make decisions when searching product reviews on Yelp, Amazon, or Trip Advisor or when they toss up a question on Twitter or Facebook asking for others’ opinions.

Have Career Professionals Been Able to Keep up with the Pace of Change?

Employment Screening Services (ESR) listed social media background screening as the 3rd top trend for 2012 on their list of 10.  Data from multiple surveys from SHRM and Jobvite show a rise in employer use of social media in their recruiting strategies.  LinkedIn is the most referenced social media platform among career professionals when discussing social media’s impact on career development but it is merely representative of a growing number of new tools from infographic resume tools to sites like Glassdoor that allow people to share their experience interviewing with companies.  The boom in technology has disrupted “normal” protocols in hiring, job search, recruiting, employer research, employment screening, personal branding, and a number of other aspects of career development.  How does Digital Darwinism effect the career professional?  Have career professionals adapted or is society and technology moving too fast?  Please share your thoughts.

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content provided by Becky W.

Resume’s can be tricky because of the amount of information that is being compressed into a single page.  This one document encapsulates a job seeker’s entire relevant work experience, their educational experience, and what they seek in a career. Their composition is as important to job seekers who are looking to find a career as they are instructive to hiring managers and staffing services, like .net developer staffing, who are looking to build solid workforces. The reason for this is because if you read between the lines, you can learn a lot more about a prospective employee than you might learn from just narrowing in on job titles and degrees. Here are a few of the keywords and details to look for in a resume:

Time lapse—Are there lengthy lapses in time in between jobs? This could signify personal problems or even an unfocused career path. A few months is not a big deal. In this economy, even half a year is understandable, but if a person hasn’t worked in years he or she better have an explanation for it. Another time factor is how long they are working at their jobs. If a job applicant hasn’t stayed with a single company for more than a few months this should be a huge red flag.

What can I do for you—The cover letter is a very valuable part of the resume and a lot can be gleaned from it about an applicant. Specifically, look for candidates that list specific goals and actions that they plan to take that will help the company. How will this applicant help you? A job seeker whose cover letter is more about how badly they need a job and how that job will help them with their career path isn’t likely going to be a great asset. Ask not what your company can do for you, but what you can do for your company.

Skills over degrees—Don’t get me wrong, degrees are important. They demonstrate a devotion to education that should not be disparaged. But sometimes a sound and varied skill set can be more valuable to a company than a degree hanging on the wall. Look for job applicants that have both, but if you have to choose one over the other, consider that many hiring managers are opting for employees who have experience working with many different kinds of software. The reason for this is that industries and job descriptions are changing more rapidly than ever now and you want a workforce that can adapt. These are just a few details to look for in a resume that could help you to narrow in on the right candidate for your company. Job applicants too might benefit from taking a look at these issues and seeing if their resumes make the grade.

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Elance, the leading global platform for online employment, released a new Global Online Employment Report that reveals some insightful trends in global online employment.  Elance has over 2 million users in over 150 countries.  The company helps businesses hire and manage contract, project-based employees in the cloud.  As the largest global platform for online employment, the company has tons of data that offers great insight regarding the trends of online employment, contract employment, and the overall snapshot of the growth of the non-traditional employment arrangements that are on the rise.  Just how significant are the trends in non-traditional employment?

Global Online Employment Report Highlights

In Q1, Elance had 193,000 jobs posted.  The number of job postings has grown every quarter since 2009 continuing on an upward trend representing a continued demand for temporary workers.  More importantly, this trend represents a shift in the mindset of hiring.  Employers have historically hired with a pay for time agreement.  Now, employers are hiring for the end result that these project-based workers provide.  When the project is complete, the job is complete.  The online worker isn’t doing to bad either as Elance reported that contractor earnings totaled $43 Million.  The number of registered contractors continues to rise with nearly 1.5 million registered contractors and slightly over 1 Million registered clients hiring contractors.

Demand Trends

Elance data shows a significant demand increase for specific services in business card design, market research, branding, and lead generation with a very significant increase in demand for creative talent.  In fact, skills in design and multimedia such as video, audio, and even writing represent 42% of total jobs posted on Elance.  The most dominate skills in demand are IT, representing 39% of jobs posted.  The number one country hiring on Elance is the United States followed by Australia and the United Kingdom.

The Benefits of Online Employment

For employers, the benefits of online employment are clear.  Many businesses turned to project-based workers in a down economy to cut their costs while maintaining productivity.  For workers, the ability to connect with employers globally via the internet allows them to work beyond their local economy and capture income opportunities elsewhere across the globe, particularly for those with in-demand skills.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 55,000 jobs added in February were temp jobs,  not payroll jobs.  The Q2 2012 U.S. Job Forecast report from Careerbuilder which surveyed 2,300 HR professionals and hiring managers indicated 34% of employers planned on increasing their temp and contract workers, another sign of the growing trend of the contract worker, dubbed the “solopreneur.”

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The question in this headline calls to attention everything that is wrong with the mentality of many job seekers and arguably, many career coaches.  The only thing “required” for one to obtain a job is that an employer makes an offer which one accepts.  How does one find themselves in the position in which an employer makes an offer?  The simple fact of the matter is that in order to have an opportunity to convince an employer to hire an individual, that individual must capture the attention of the employer.   So, what captures attention?

There are many ways to capture attention and they are all marketing tactics.  Resumes, cover letters, letters of recommendation, and portfolios are what many think of when they imagine what is “necessary” for a job search.  In discussions with clients and other career professionals, what surprises me is how often I hear of people not taking additional steps in their personal marketing campaign claiming certain things aren’t “required.”  For instance, it may not be common practice to have a video resume if you’re seeking a truck driver job.  Additionally, you may not “need” to blog about cooking or have an infographic resume if you plan on entering the culinary art field.  What I don’t understand is why so many people have the mindset that they will do the bare minimum in terms of their own marketing campaign because certain things are not “required.”

Rock your Brand!

Doing the basics such as having a resume or cover letter  is expected so how does that make you stand out?  How do you demonstrate true passion for your field, your craft, your industry?  How do you demonstrate your personal brand in a way that shows employers you are unique?  It’s by doing the “extra” that you stand out.  Stop doing what is “required” of you and start doing what you have the potential to do.  This goes beyond your self marketing campaign – it has to do with who you are 24/7.  Are you someone who just skates by or are you exceptional in the results you produce, in the attitude you have while carrying out your work, in the enthusiasm you inject into your colleagues,  and in your relentless pursuit to go above and beyond?  Stop having the, “I do what is required of me” attitude and start challenging yourself to push your potential.  Employers want to hire, retain, and promote rock stars – not those who just do the bare minimum.  Go all out and rock your own personal brand and stop sticking to the “basics.”

If you’re a job seeker, don’t think of non-traditional marketing collateral such as video resumes, infographic resumes, online profiles, a blog, etc. as something you shouldn’t do because it isn’t “required.”  If you’re a career coach, don’t dissuade your constituents because such collateral are not “required.”  These new forms of collateral are representative of something greater than a means to obtain the attention of an employer audience – they represent new skill sets.  Specifically, they represent a change in how we market ourselves, how we communicate our value, how we are found by employers/recruiters, and how employers consume the information we provide.  Start exercising these new skills so you can remain relevant now and in the future.

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A listening post is simply an automated method of monitoring what is published on the web.  The web is full of content and to filter the noise from the news, listening posts are excellent tools that save time while monitoring relevant information.  Automating your job search with listening posts can help you stay informed quickly and efficiently but whether or not you are currently seeking a job, I highly recommend that you always use listening posts to monitor the market.  Why?

Why Should I Monitor What is Published on the Web?

Massive amounts of data get published to the web daily.  If you take your own professional development seriously, you should constantly stay informed so you can adjust to market trends and remain relevant.  You may be very happy where you are working currently but if you don’t monitor the market, you may miss an opportunity to apply to your dream job simply because you never knew about it.  Moreover, monitoring the job market helps you learn of market trends, employer expectations, and jobs you didn’t even know existed.  This can all seem overwhelming unless this information gathering is broken up into small, focused components over time.  This is where listening posts can help you.  Listening posts are a curation technique allowing you to curate relevant content from which to learn and share with your network.  Listening posts should also be established to help you monitor your own brand.

How Do I Set Up Listening Posts?

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a means to publish frequently updated content.  Many job search engines provide an RSS feed option that allows you to automate a specific search.  Here are a few different types of listening posts:

10 Listening Posts to Monitor the Web

• Indeed – Automate a job search for your area in any industry
• Simplyhired – Automate a job search for your area in any industry
• oDesk – Automate a search for contract work
• jobchangenotifier.com – Get email alerts when LinkedIn connections change jobs.
• Careernotify.com – Automatically monitor when friends’ job titles change on Facebook
• Changedetection.com – Monitor a company web page for changes such as when they change employment listings.
• Yotify.com – Monitor online classifieds for new job postings
• Twilert – Monitor the Twitter stream
• TweetBeep – Monitor the Twitter stream
• Google Alerts – If you don’t know about this one, god help you! Monitor what is published on the web using search terms.

Do you have a listening post you like?  Please leave a comment and share it here for readers!

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You went to college and got that degree, but haven’t used some of those skills acquired for so long that you wonder if you could even claim them on your resume. However, when it comes to job applications, the more education you can claim the better. But you don’t exactly want to write down skills that you don’t know if you are able to perform anymore

While opting to find colleges in Miami, Chicago, LA, or where ever you live is a great way to get the additional education you need, opting to use a few free online resources to brush up on your skills can also be a great way to get the know how you need to land the job you want. These resources won’t replace an actual degree, but they can help you review those you once had so that you can impress any future employer:

The Khan Academy

The Khan Academy is possibly one of the most efficient and comprehensive learning tools on the web. The site offers hundred of quick tutorials ranging in anything from basic algebra to language to accounting.

So if you are needing to brush up on your financial skills or bookkeeping practices that you learned eons ago but haven’t touched since then, consider watching a few Khan Academy tutorials. There are quizzes and reviews at the end of each lessons, and the skills you learn will keep you from falsifying skills and will help you impress a potential boss.

Wikiversity

Similar to the Khan Academy, Wikiversity offers a wide variety of lessons and information covering nearly every subject matter. However, Wikiversity isn’t as video intensive and offers a few other features that makes it a different type of learning resource.

Through Wikiversity, you can join forums and discussions that will allow you to discuss lessons and information with others using the online tool. So if you have any questions or don’t quite understand specific concepts, you can ask your “classmates” or authorities on the subject matter for further clarification. It is literally like participating in a university Blackboard discussion without paying the steep tuition fees.

BBC Languages

Knowing a second language is perhaps one of the most beneficial skills a person can have when looking for a job. As the world becomes more connected, knowing Spanish and Mandarin, in addition to your native English, can quickly put you at the forefront of a stack of applications.

So if you are struggling with securing employment, consider getting on BBC languages or one of the various free language learning resources online. BBC languages is by far one of the most comprehensive and offers a wide variety of auditory and text-based lessons.

Getting a job in today’s market is by no means easy, but most job hunters already know that. What many struggle with is why they can seem to secure a job, and figuring out what they need to do to make themselves more enticing. You’ve already got the degree, so why not further those skills and that knowledge you have already attained by using online learning tools. They’ll boost your skills and confidence, making you even more likely to secure employment.

Personal branding is a term that has gained a lot of buzz for those who work as a career professional but what is it?  Personal branding refers to how we market ourselves strategically to influence public perception.  This is my own definition.  If you think about it, people have always marketed themselves to influence others’ perceptions in one way or another.  As human beings, we are social creatures, we live and thrive in groups and we care what others think about us despite the fact that some people claim they don’t.  The very fact one feels the need to state they don’t care what others think about them says they care enough to announce it to others because they wish to impress upon others that they don’t care…which only has the reverse effect (end mini rant here).  Getting back on track, let’s talk about a personal brand in the context of our careers.  The entire job search process for a job seeker is a marketing campaign.  The job market is similar to a retail market in a lot of ways.  The job seeker marketing collateral has traditionally been the resume, cover letter, letters of recommendation, reference list and/or portfolio.  With the advent of social media, just as product branding has changed, so to has personal branding.  You following so far?  Continue along this logic and let’s talk about whether or not having a personal brand makes you “fake.”

Online Personal Branding

New technology gives people so many more channels to market themselves to get noticed, get found, and get hired.  This entire process of online marketing is so new, however, that people are confused, they don’t know where to begin, they are overwhelmed by all the new tools and as soon as they feel they learn one, another one pops up or the one they liked no longer exists (yeah technology will do that to you and so will start-ups still trying to see if their business model will survive in a sea of competitors).  If you’re a social media user, you’ve likely heard that on social media, you should be “authentic” and “transparent,” which are other buzz words to describe the culture, or philosophy of interaction through social media.  If you view yourself as a brand and have a purpose in “branding” yourself, how do you maintain authenticity or transparency?

Are you Fake if you have a Personal Brand?

Does personal branding mean you have an agenda and therefor are no longer authentic or transparent?  Does having a goal make anyone fake?  I don’t think controlling your personal brand necessitates a disingenuous display of who you are or what your goals are through your branding efforts.  The best brands are not fake – they are genuine, authentic, and truly add value.  What’s wrong with sharing what you offer and providing value to others?  We all have many sides to us.  For instance, the way you interact with your mom is not likely the same way you interact with your best friend, your significant other, or your boss.  Does this mean you are fake?  Of course not – it means you are multidimensional and you present different sides of you according to your audience.  The fact is that we do this intuitively already that perhaps we don’t even think of it in this way but in this sense, we are always “branding.”  Guys, the first time you met a girl you wanted to date, did you talk about your nerdy comic book collection (I happen to think comic books are cool)?  Girls, did you talk about your shoe collection?  The point is, this didn’t make you fake – it’s about perception management and that’s what personal branding is about.  In the context of career development, we always have and always will brand ourselves in such a way that will help us achieve our goals.  The difference now is that we have so many more options to do it and do it well.

Make sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think.

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These top 10 skills lists employers want always change but it is important to analyze the data periodically to see what it reveals.  Data mining information from web is growing in sophistication and importance as the internet increasingly consumes more of our time and as more people become prosumers of data and not just consumers.  Wanted Analytics provides real-time business intelligence for the talent marketplace and after analyzing the job requirements from over 650 million online job advertisements, they have determine the tools, technological skills, and certifications most frequently advertised for any position in any U.S. location.  Here’s what the data revealed.

Top 10 Skills Employers Currently Want According to Wanted Analytics

1. Microsoft Office
2. Microsoft PowerPoint
3. SQL (Structured Query Language)
4. Microsoft Word
5. Oracle Java
6. Linux
7. UNIX
8. CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
9. Microsoft Excel
10. Microsoft SQL Server (MS SQL)

The Top 10 Certifications Employers currently Want According to Wanted Analytics

1. Certified Registered Nurse (RN, RNC)
2. Certification in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)
3. Basic Life Support (BLS)
4. Commercial Driver’s License (CDL)
5. Continuing Education (CE)
6. Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS)
7. Long Term Care (LTC)
8. Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
9. Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN)
10. Board Certified (BC)

The Top 10 Skills Advertised According to Indeed

1. HTML5
2. MongoDB
3. iOS
4. Android
5. Mobile app
6. Puppet
7. Hadoop
8. jQuery
9. PaaS
10. Social Media

The list will obviously depend on what data you are mining, where the data is that you are mining, how much of it you mine, and the quality and accuracy of your methods.  Indeed’s list is mainly technology focused in terms of the advertisements from which it is aggregating data with a heavy emphasis on programming.  This makes sense since there is a huge boom in programming positions and it is also no surprise to see social media in the list which continues to grow in importance.  It is no secrete the top certifications employers want currently revolve around health care.  Are you surprised to see that some skills or certifications didn’t make it?  Which ones do you think would have made your list?

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The U.S. economy is a complex machine influenced by many variables.  Often times we hear about the skills gap that exists in reference to recent graduates being pumped out of the college and university system without the skills needed in the areas of demand in the labor market.  Areas of high demand have increasingly been related to programming with the boom of web 2.0 technologies, app development, the influence of cloud computing and the fact that society is increasingly mobile.  What we hear less of is the current labor force.  We have many different generations working from Baby Boomers to Millennials.  What about the people currently in the workforce?  Do they have the skills required to keep companies competitive?  When “experts” identify the solution to the skills gap, they often refer to training those in the college environment but isn’t training also the solution for those currently working?  Just think for a second about how much the world has changed in the past 5 years.  It’s hard to keep up unless you are continuously training yourself and unless companies demonstrate a commitment to training their own employees, it is rare when employees takes it upon themselves to do so.  Of all the training needs, what do companies prioritize?  What do they want most?

Companies Want Leaders

I know – it sounds obvious or perhaps cliche but companies really do want leaders.  A new survey by Global Novations, revealed that 60.8% of employer respondents indicated that developing the next generation of leaders was their top training priority for 2012.  Strengthening employee engagement and addressing skills gaps for critical roles were the number two and number three priorities.  The survey also revealed that the majority of companies indicated they planned on using self-paced, online learning delivery and blended delivery over other methods.  Another indicator of the importance of social media was that when asked what methods of content delivery for informal learning methods would be used in 2012, 38.3% of respondents indicated they would use social networking.  Given the turmoil businesses have had in the last few years during this poor economy, one has to wonder if the surge in the interest for developing the next generation of leaders was inspired by the lack of leadership from so many in the existing generation.  We are at a critical point in our economy where businesses need to completely retool their infrastructure to prepare for a new economic reality and they need to prepare the people who will lead the transition.  Leadership training is essential to developing highly adaptable talent cultures that can rapidly respond to the fastest evolving technology-driven economy we have ever seen.

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The unemployment situation has taken a turn for the better recently, as government figures show higher levels of hiring and a declining unemployment rate. But this does not mean that the economic recession is over or that job seekers will finally find some relief. There are still many more applicants out there than there are positions, and people looking for a job will likely face competition from dozens – if not hundreds – others who want the same thing.

Hiring competition means that employers can often have their pick from a long list of qualified candidates. While in theory this can only prove beneficial for a hiring manger, the reality is that the large number of qualified job seekers makes it difficult to distinguish between the good and the best options. If two candidates have stellar resumes, references, and relevant work experiences, how should an employer go about making a hiring decision?

Employers grappling with this question have increasingly placed weight on the interview component of the application process, figuring as they do that this method is best suited to illustrate personality differences between candidates. If two applicants are similarly qualified, after all, a hiring manager wants the one who possesses a personality best suited for the company’s needs. The interview can help flesh these traits out.

For this reason, many employers are using unconventional interview approaches (which test personality traits) rather than traditional ones (which focus more on experience and expertise). An unconventional interview may take place in a restaurant or on a golf course, it may involve questions with no clear answers and queries designed to test a given element of one’s personality.

If you have an unconventional interview planned, you probably may be wondering how best to prepare. This is a valid concern since unconventional interviews are hard to predict. Nevertheless, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

-Have an end-goal. Most applicants walk into an interview with a basic goal – convince the interviewer that they are qualified and suited for the job. These applicants have prepared for their interview with this goal in mind. While you certainly want to convince an employer of your suitability in an unconventional interview, it is perhaps even more important that you display an engaged, committed, and well-rounded personality. What personality do you want to convey? This is an important question to ask before you start preparing.

-Look beyond your core qualifications. If you know your interview will be an unconventional one, this probably means that the employer finds you qualified on paper but wants to assess you in other ways. Consequently, you may benefit in practice by talking about your interests, hobbies, or volunteer opportunities. Preparing answers about your last job or the online degree you received from The College Network may be less necessary.

-Actions speak just as loudly as words. Body language can go a long way towards painting a perception of someone’s personality, whether accurately or erroneously. The way you hold yourself matter in any interview, of course, but it likely carries more weight in an unconventional setting. Make sure, then, to practice your eye contact, your hand usage, your sitting posture, and – of course – your tables manners.

It is only natural to fear the unknown, which is why so many job applicants prefer a traditional interview to a less-predictable unconventional one. But the unconventional interview is usually not a test of your knowledge or your qualifications; instead, it is an employer’s chance to assess you individually, as a person. Preparing for your interview with this in mind will hopefully make it a more successful experience – as well as a less stressful one.

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