More than 100 people have sought advice from me in just the last six months on topics ranging from cold calling, search techniques, bad bosses, jumping ship, jumping fences, compelling resumes, coaching references, and building networks.  I have seen or heard the good bad and the downright ugly.  Consistently what strikes me as I look back is the lack of knowing or understanding “the art of doing well by doing good.”  I am talking about paying it back and paying it forward.

While it may be a generalization, so many of the “gainfully employed” are woefully ignorant of the nature of the job search and the incredible frustration endured by job seekers as they pursue the hunt.  Sometimes it bears remembering that the shoe can be on the other foot.  With this in mind, here are a few do’s for those working stiffs who may be contacted by people looking to get out of the unemployment queue.

1. Respond to your friends’ requests for advice, connections or referrals! Sure you are busy.  But take some time to consider helping a friend and even someone who could be a potential friend or colleague.
2. Remember and heed the past! Consider those times when you were in the job hunt.  Do you recall how disappointing it was to get no response from anyone?  Why not shave 15 minutes off your lunch hour to make a couple of calls or emails to help folks connect.
3. Return the favor! Are there folks who have helped you in your job or during your career that are facing bleak career prospects?  How about the supplier who saved your skin at the last minute or the client that kept you in business with more business?  Reciprocity is a two way street.  Get busy helping!
4. Be proactive! In the course of your day, have you received a call from a recruiter looking for referrals?   How much time could it take to provide names of friends and/or colleagues that might fit the job description?   Are there jobs going begging in your own company?  Why not reach out to friends that could be a good fit and get them into your firm for interviews?
5. Say a good word! If you have friends, colleagues or acquaintances looking for new opportunities, consider endorsing their capabilities. Web sites such as LinkedIn are a great platform to sing the praises of folks that have done a particularly spectacular job for you either as boss, employee, supplier, mentor or even nemesis.
6. Students are people too! Get involved in helping young people.  Did you ever have a mentor that showed you the ropes or gave you disaster-avoiding advice?  Sure you did.  Take some time and be a mentor.  Help others avoid pitfalls that may have challenged you.  Spread your wings and take a couple people under them.

Paying it back and paying it forward is just the moral thing to do.  In this economy, or any economy, helping people always pays dividends.

Gerard “Gerry” F. Corbett is the PR Job Coach and  Founder and Consultant of Redphlag LLC, a marketing consulting firm.  He has served four decades in technology PR most recently as vice president of branding of Hitachi for more than 12 years. You can contact Gerry at coach at prjobcoach dot com or follow him on Twitter @prjobcoach.

Image credit: LiminalMike

While I haven’t seemed to be able to completely disconnect, I’m trying to make a conscious effort to spend as much time as I can with baby Julia Mai until January-ish. It leaves me with very little time to write.

Over the past two months I’ve enlisted the help of some awesome guest bloggers to contribute to the blog.  A huge thanks to Alison Kenney, Gerry Corbett, Jonathan Rick, Kelli Matthews, Ken Jacobs, Jacob Share, Linda Beltran, Rob Manfredo, George Nikanorav, Rachel Esterline, and Chris Perry for their hard work and contributions so far. You can find all guest contributions here.

I’ll be continuing to work with guest bloggers for the next couple months, so I’m inviting anybody who is interested to submit a post.

Main criteria for a post:

1. The post must follow the theme of this blog: job search and employment, recruiting (written for hiring managers and/or candidates), social media, or anything about the public relations industry.
2. Original content and not previously posted on another blog.
3. Provide links and any images you want to go along with the post with appropriate attribution.
4. A short (two- to three-sentence bio).

If you want to make sure I’ll post your idea, feel free to email me about it.

PR folks who’ve worked at both small companies and large corporations know that their role, title and responsibilities can vary widely depending on the size of the company they work for.

Smaller companies tend to have fewer titles to cover the PR function in their organization, but the role often encompasses a greater number of responsibilities.  Larger firms are more likely to have a team of PR people, each with more specific duties.

Some job titles, such as “receptionist” or “speech writer,” mean pretty much the same thing no matter where you go.  And although you can glean information on how many years’ experience the role requires from titles such as “PR Specialist,” “PR Manager” and “Director of PR,” (entry-level, 3-5 years and 5+ years, respectively) the responsibilities for each varies depending on the size of the company they represent.

Funnily enough, receptionist and speech writing duties could be included in those responsibilities!

When looking at PR positions with a smaller company, consider:

Is the company a good culture fit for you? You’ll be spending most of your time with a set, small number of co-workers and it helps to understand up-front if their work style matches yours.

• The role likely has a broad set of responsibilities.  Small companies often expect everyone to pitch in, which could mean you get to flex and develop a wider range of skills. On the down side, this could mean you get saddled with less strategic projects or even tasks that are outside the normal realm of PR.
• The job’s responsibilities aren’t etched in stone.  Small businesses feel the effects of sales and economic cycles differently that big companies do and the PR role will adapt with those changes and the company’s needs.
• Small companies can offer more opportunities for career advancement.  Working with a smaller employee pool means that you may get more direct access to the boss.  It’s also easier to stand out in the (smaller) crowd.  There’s often more flexibility to “write your own ticket” and define the role by introducing your own ideas/strategies.
• Your growth is tied to the company’s growth.  Although many start-ups fail within the first five years, if your small company takes off so could your career.

While PR positions at larger firms include:

• The benefits of working on a team, such as working with others who understand and appreciate PR and support your work and the decreased possibility that you’ll need to “sell” PR internally
• The chance to practice PR on a broader scale.  Larger companies have more and bigger audiences to communicate with, more media that are interested in them, and impact more people overall.
• PR programs and projects that are better funded.  At larger companies, there is more budget to start with, more resources to work with, and there can be a chance to try innovative and cutting-edge techniques.
• The opportunity to change jobs without leaving the company.  Working in a PR department can be your window into other areas of a large company with opportunities through internal transfers/hires.
• A more stable work environment.  With the exception of last year’s melt-down among Wall Street firms, larger companies can be more stable fiscally than smaller firms and can withstand financial losses better.

And then there are PR professionals who work independently, like me.  In addition to having strong PR skills, solo practitioners also need to be proficient networkers, self-promoters and salespeople (to win new business) and should have the confidence and self-discipline to keep their business going at a steady pace.

Alison Kenney is an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience.  She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries.  She can be reached at alisonkenney at comcast dot net.

Image credit: Capt. Tim

This is a guest post by Jonathan Rick.

If ever you’ve interviewed for a job you didn’t get, no doubt you’ve bumped into this unpleasant experience.

You interview, you send a follow-up letter—maybe even with some writing samples or references—and then you wait. A week or so goes by, and you check in, yet hear nothing. Another week passes, and your frustration mounts.

If you’re lucky, eventually you receive a form letter that the position has been filled.

Excuse me, but what the fuck?

If two parties take the time to schedule and meet for an interview—in addition to conducting any background research—doesn’t common courtesy demand acknowledging subsequent communications? Is it that burdensome to respond with boilerplate such as, “We’ll let you know if we decide to move forward”? Keeping people in limbo is just plain rude.

So what to do? A recruiter might advise you to keep your chin up and plug along. E-mails being ignored? Pick up the phone. Calls going to voice mail? Leave a message with an assistant.

Let me suggest an alternative. If a prospective employer refuses to give you the time of day, then check that company off your list.

Too often, we strain to craft the polite but pointed e-mail. “Just want to make sure you have everything you need?” “Was wondering if I should plan to uncork a champagne bottle this weekend?” “Thought I’d touch base…”

Instead, spurned job seekers would do better to take their talents elsewhere. Just because prospective employers tend to have the upper hand doesn’t mean they should abuse it. And just because prospective employees need jobs doesn’t mean they should let themselves be taken for granted.

Granted, many job seekers do not enjoy the luxury of being so choosy, especially when the unemployment rate stands at 9.8%. Yet this advice not only serves your self-respect; it’s also practical, grounded in the experience that if a company is interested in you, it will get back to you, usually promptly. When that doesn’t happen, rarely does  following-up change minds.

Jonathan Rick, of Booz Allen Hamilton, supports clients across the federal government on the strategy and execution of various digital initiatives. He blogs at No Straw Men and tweets at @jrick.

Baby naming has been one of the most conversed topics in my household over the past few months while awaiting our first baby’s arrival. My husband and I looked through all the books, asked our friends, family, and strangers for input, picked out a few ourselves, and ultimately settled on none. This went on for months.

For me, choosing my baby’s name was a big decision, something she would be attached to for the rest of her life. Screwing this up was not an option.

We couldn’t seem to agree on any name until the very end. It turned into a game to suggest the most ridiculous names possible. But seriously, I hated most of his choices. My choices were, of course, all awesome.

Our decision was based on a few factors. First, we live in Argentina, but I’m from the United States and he is Argentine. Our options were endless, both in English and in Spanish. I felt it was important to choose an ‘international’ name, or at least something easy to pronounce in Spanish and in English, especially since our children will have tri-citizenship. My mother would kill me if she couldn’t say her granddaughter’s name correctly. And since our daughter will be raised in Argentina, I didn’t want her to run into issues with Spanish speakers constantly pronouncing her name wrong or having to spell it out 5 times before getting it right (like being a ‘Lindsay’ in a Spanish-speaking country).

We decided to write out all of our name choices, even if the other didn’t like it. We ended up with:

Julia
Fiona
Celia
Simona
Faustina
Juana Antonia
Brisa (translation: breeze)

A couple of days before her birth, we finally agreed on Julia.

So why am I telling you this story?

Laurie Ruettiman got me thinking about this again a few days ago when she brought up the baby naming topic on her blog, Punk Rock HR. She asked her readers their opinions on baby names and how it affects their future career options. I’d encourage you to read the comments for some interesting insight.

I sprung many of these questions on myself during our naming process. How could our name selection influence our daughter’s potential career options when she enters the workforce? Does a non-traditional or an ethnic name influence the opinions and assumptions of the evaluator? Equally qualified on paper, looked at side-by-side, one candidate named Julia and the other named Faustina or Juana Antonia, who would be called in first? Would it even be an issue?

Talk to me. Am I crazy for forbidding my husband to name our next child Viento (translation: Wind) because I fear he may be passed up for a future job opportunity by some jerk who thinks his name is too far out there?

My parents almost named me Sunshine. My mom wanted to call me Sunny for short. Luckily, someone talked them out of it, but I’ve always wondered if being named Sunshine would have affected my disposition.

My mom always taught me that lies propagate. Tell one and you’ll find yourself fabricating more to support or cover the first. It is a good life lesson, but even more important when you’re looking for a new job. Many believe it is commonplace - Some recruiters encourage it – However, I have always believed it a grievous offense. It is just bad form to lie (no matter how small) on your resume.

Maybe you lost your job, or you just feel it is time for a change so you do your diligence and research the positions available. The next step is to consider the market need and build a resume that best sells your skills and experience to satisfy the market. But what if you never managed a crisis program or developed a social media strategy, but you have participated and know you can do the work? Is there harm in embellishing your role? Well, lying on your resume can set into motion a daisy chain of lies that you may never live down.

As an example, let’s say you gave yourself that promotion you really deserve and changed your title on your resume from Account Executive to Senior Account Executive. What happens when a prospective employer reaches out to your reference who happens to be a coworker? Now, you either have to ask that person to lie on your behalf or formulate an explanation to cover your white lie when the prospective employer is confused by the information that does not line up. Not to mention, the misinformation will likely deter the employer. You can see how this simple embellishment can kick off a vicious cycle.

The constant concern and stress of maintaining the story is one thing, but losing an opportunity and being revealed as a charlatan have broader reaching effects and can impact your personal and professional reputation for years to come.

For your own peace of mind, keep everything above board. Impress prospective employers with your knowledge, charm and preparation. Save the creative writing for your blog or email to mom about that fishing trip.

Rob Manfredo is a Director at Beckerman PR. Rob has over a decade of diverse experience in media relations, crisis communications, brand development, events marketing, Web site development, demand generation and new media programs. You can find him on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Photo credit: NizNoz

This is a guest post by Alison Kenney.

Social media has not only shaken up job-seekers’ lives – it’s also changed the way staffing and recruiting firms operate.  Perhaps you linked to this blog from Twitter, or Facebook.  Do you also interact with recruiters or staffing firms on those social media platforms?

There are two general ways that staffing firms use social media:

1. To build their brand and position themselves as thought-leaders by passing along news, links to articles, etc that are industry-related
2. To post open job opportunities

Boston-based temporary staffing firm Hollister is one of the most social media-savvy firms in the industry.  Earlier this year, Hollister partnered with 451 Marketing, a Boston-based new media communications agency, and launched its “Recruiting 2.0” for using social media to recruit candidates.  The effort includes building more than 30 online communities across LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.  The communities are for both active and passive job seekers and are organized by profession to mirror Hollister’s service lines, including Accounting and Finance, Administrative, Creative and Marketing, Technology, and Human Resources.

For example, on LinkedIn the Hollister/451 Marketing team manages groups called Boston HR Leaders, Boston Accounting & Finance Professionals, Boston Creative Group and Boston Technology Hub.

On Twitter, Hollister posts job openings with links to longer descriptions on the Hollister web site and provides links to articles with tips for job seekers.  Hollister has several identities on Twitter, including @JobsBoston, @BostonHiring, @BostonTechHub, @AccountingMA, @CreativeBoston and @BostonMarketing.

Hollister also provides content via two different blogs – one for hiring managers (http://bostonhiringblog.com) and one for job seekers (http://bostonjobsblog.com).  Hollister uses its social media communities to position clients’ job opportunities and identify more qualified candidates for job openings, including passive seekers who are more likely to engage with a professional community than visit a job board.  Hollister also instructs its recruiters on best practices for creating and using personal accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, enabling them to get a more complete picture of job candidates and build relationships.  According to Hollister’s Director of Marketing, Meg Toland, the communities, which have more than 1,000 members, are a strategic way to break through the clutter of job boards and home in on qualified candidates by using technology to interact more effectively.

Adecco Group NA, part of one of the largest staffing conglomerates in the world, has also built a presence on Twitter.  Its @adeccoGroup, with more than 2,000 followers, tweets insights on the job market and economy, shares links to relevant news and promotes company news or executive opinions.  In addition, Adecco has created separate Twitter identities for promoting job openings in specific fields, e.g. @jobs_accounting, @clerical_job, @jobs_callcenter, @jobs_CS, @jobs_engineers, @jobs_finance, @jobs_healthcare, @jobs_industrial, @job_marketing, @job_scientific, @jobs_operations, @jobs_payroll, @jobs_warehouse, @jobs_technology and @searchandapply (the last is a listing of all Adecco jobs).  Regional Adecco offices also tweet under their own identities and post local job openings.

Staffing firms with the heft of a big brand, like Adecco, or those who are first to act, like Hollister, are staking their claims in social media.  They’ve identified that the way to recruit candidates and promote job openings is by enabling interaction and sharing content via online communities.

Alison Kenney is an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience.  She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries.  She can be reached at alisonkenney@comcast.net.

This is a guest post from Kelli Matthews.

You Never Know Where Job Leads Will Come From.

Just this week I got an email from a friend who practices PR in Portland, Oregon. In the email my friend said that she was looking for an intern, she included a job description… and it asked me not to share the description widely, but instead to recommend a few stellar students who I thought would be a good fit for her agency.

This happens a lot. And it really underscores a lesser-known reason why it’s important to build relationships with your professors. Recommendations and job leads can come from unexpected places.

What can you do to build this relationship? These are tips that I’ve found work for me. Obviously, as with anything in PR, know your audience and use the most appropriate channels for each person you want to keep in contact with.

• Drop me an email once in a while to tell me what you are up to, what kind of work you’re doing, what you like, what you find challenging, etc. I love hearing what students are doing and it also keeps your experience top of mind if you are in the position of looking for a new job.
• Connect with me on LinkedIn. Sometimes when I get a request to provide recommendations for a job opening, I go to my LinkedIn contacts and scan the list looking for former students who might be interested. Keep your LinkedIn up-to-date and use it actively to share professional accomplishments.
• Follow (and interact) with me on Twitter. I’m very active on Twitter and I love to hear from students there. In fact, I sort students separately from the rest of my Twitter friends to make sure I don’t miss connections.

I want to know what you’re interested in (particularly when you’re in job search mode). If you’ve enjoyed working in high tech PR, but your dream is something in the wine business, let me know. Be careful of course about what you share in a public forum.

It’s not difficult, right? And really nothing beyond what you’re doing to build your professional network connections, anyway. Just don’t forget that professor who you relied on for resume and job tips in college is still a great connection after you get your degree.

I also want to note that it’s not embarrassing and I’m not going to think less of you if you’ve been waiting tables, doing sales, working retail or [fill in the non-PR job here] since last we talked. Not only might I know of job openings, but I might even have some tips for getting back into a “PR state of mind” and freshening your skills. You never know!

I’d love to hear from students and professors! What do you think? What tips would you add?

Kelli Matthews teaches public relations and social media classes at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communications. She also owns a PR, marketing and design agency, Verve Northwest, based in Eugene, Oregon. You can follow her on Twitter @kmatthews, connect on LinkedIn or just read her blog, PRosinTraining.

Photo credit: Bay Range

I’m a California girl living and working in Tokyo.  I had never aspired to move to a foreign country to make a living – never even dreamed about it, but, here I am.  And, in the year since I left the States, the question that I am asked the most is, “How do I get a job abroad?”  I wish I had a no-fail answer, but I don’t.  So, instead, I share these helpful hints…

Be flexible. Don’t declare, “I am going to move to London, and no other destination will do!”  Search positions, not countries.  However, if you have reason to be in a specific part of the world, research companies that have branches in your city of choice.

Be qualified. Visions of tax-free living (which doesn’t mean you don’t have to file U.S. taxes, by the way), isn’t reason enough to look abroad for work.  You must have a definite skill and enough experience to “back it up.”  Keep in mind, when a company hires from outside the country, they must demonstrate why a foreigner is more qualified to do that job versus a national.  For example, when I applied for my Visa, the Japanese government required that I show 10 years proof of consecutive employment to demonstrate that I was qualified to do my job.

Be realistic. Yes, you hear stories of people arriving in a foreign country armed with only a “visitor’s” visa, finding a job and living happily ever after.  This is the exception, not the norm!  Some countries – and they all vary – have very specific visa restrictions, and are especially mindful of the “pretences” by which you enter their county.  Further, most everything you do once you arrive in a foreign country requires a “sponsor,” so even renting an apartment without the proper paperwork and “sponsor” (i.e. employer) can be very problematic.

Having said all that, let me also encourage anyone looking for work abroad to also be hopeful, be persistent and be patient.  If the expat life is in your future, it will come to pass, and it will be an amazing experience – it has been for me!

Linda Beltran is the Director of Public Relations for a five-star, luxury hotel in Tokyo Midtown.  She’s a native of California who, before coming to Japan, had never had sushi…she’s a convert now!

Photo credit: Bilabialboxing

Who to follow for the best public relations information on Twitter.

NinjaFollow will try adding these Twitterers to your account while telling you whether each was added successfully or if you’re already following them.

Jacob Share, a job search expert, is the creator of JobMob, one of the biggest blogs in the world about finding jobs. Follow him on Twitter for job search tips, resources and humor.

Photo credit: Xotoko

Update: Ninja Follow tool seems to be offline. Use this tool instead (http://www.pinoytwitters.com/x/index.html) following the same instructions.