Branding at SQL Saturday #265

I’ll be speaking at SQL Saturday #265 in Portland, OR next week and one of my talks is the branding talk. If you’re in the area, feel free to register and come for the day, or just my talk.

Branding Yourself for a Dream Job–The latest PPT

I presented this talk at SQL Saturday #249 in San Diego last weekend, and it went well. No great questions or insights from the talk, but I did want to upload the latest PPT deck.

Branding Yourself for a Dream Job - v17

Updated Slide Deck - Branding Yourself for a Dream Job

I changed my slide deck slightly over the last few presentations, so I’ve updated the slides. Not too many changes, but a few more screen clips of various articles that talk about hiring and your online postings.

Branding Yourself for a Dream Job Slide Deck

Branding Yourself for a Dream Job

The modern job search is one that many people struggle to be successful with. These days companies often receive dozens, if not hundreds of resumes and applications for every open position. Standing out from the pack of candidates can be hard, but if you build a strategy over time, you can increase your chances of getting an interview and finding your dream job.

This session examines practical ways that you can build a brand as well as some of the dangers you may face. I will cover different reasons why you should use these techniques as well as how you can take advantage of them to build a better brand. You can choose to do any or all of these.

• Networking
• Volunteering
• Blogging
• Authoring
• Speaking
• Leading

This session is 60 minutes long.

Note: This presentation was originally called "The Modern Resume", but I've changed it to focus more on the outcome I want people to focus on.

The Modern Resume in Albuquerque

I’ll be delivering the Modern Resume presentation at SQL Saturday #183 in Albuquerque, NM on February 9, 2013.

If you are in the area, whether you are a technical worker or not, please register and feel free to come by.

The Modern Resume at the PASS Professional Development VC

I gave the Modern Resume/Branding presentation today for the PASS Professional Development Virtual Chapter. It was recorded and if you are a PASS member, you can access it.
I’ve also updated the slide deck and it’s available here: BrandingDreamJob - v16.ppt

Rocky Mountain Tech Trifecta

I delivered the Branding Yourself for a Dream Job presentation last Saturday, May 19, in Denver.

If you are looking for the slide deck, it’s here.

Branding Yourself for a Dream Job.PPT

SQL Saturday #131

I’ll be delivering the branding presentation at SQL Saturday #131, in Phoenix, AZ, on Apr 28 at 2:45. If you’ll be in the area, consider registering for the event and coming by. It’s free, and there will be lots of other technical SQL Server information as well.

Branding Yourself - PASS Presentation

I guess I did well, with 67 people in the talk and 39 feedback surveys. The average was between 4-5 for all categories, but some great comments for a few of the questions:

Did you learn what you expected to learn?

• GREAT SESSION
• PLUS SOME!
• YES! NOT TOO MUCH NEW STUFF BUT I FEEL TEN TIMES MORE EMPOWERED TO GET MY OWN BLOG OFF THE GROUND. THANKS.

How would you rate the Speaker’s presentation skills? (1 - Very Poor, 2 - Poor, 3 - Average, 4 - Good, 5 - Excellent)

• Steve is an excellent speaker. He repeats audience questions!
• NOT BAD BUT NOT STANDING OUT IN ANY WAY EITHER.

What will you take away from this session?

• Update my resume! Get blogging more.
• A LOT
• IT IS TIME TO VAN SP_UPDATERESUME
• GREAT, GREAT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TIPS! ESPECIALLY LIKED THE PART ABOUT BLOGGING. WELL DONE!
• IDEAS FOR FINDING EMPLOYEES AND OWN CAREER
• THE IMPORTANCE OF MANAGING MY IMAGE
• STEVE OPENED MY EYES TO THINGS I ALREADY KNEW BUT WASN'T REALLY AWARE OF.
• LEARNED SOME GREAT TIPS FOR IMPROVING "BRAND" TO HELP IN KEEPING/FINDING JOBS
• GLAD I CAME. VERY ENJOYABLE AND INFORMATIVE.
• SUPERB PRESENTATION!
• I GOT SOME GREAT TIPS TO IMPROVE MY ONLINE PRESENCE.
• DESIRE TO PROMOTE ONLINE PRESENCE
• I ALREADY STARTED TO UPDATE MY ONLINE PRESENCE AND I'LL BE UPDATING MY RESUME WHEN I GET HOME.
• GREAT STUFF! MORE GOOD INFO THAN EXPECTED!

This is definitely one of my favorite talks. If you’d like to see it, let me know, or let the organizers know for your next event.

Upcoming Presentations - 2009

I have a few presentations of The Modern Resume scheduled for the remainder of this year. If you're in the area, feel free to stop by.

• June 6, 2009 - Pensacola, FL, SQL Saturday #15.
• July 2, 2009 - Richmond, VA, Richmond SQL Server Users Group.
• Nov 2-5, 2009 - Seattle, WA, SQL PASS Community Summit. (Pending, not confirmed)
• Nov 10-11 - Las Vegas, NV, SQL Connections conference (pending, not confirmed)

I am still trying to figure out if I'll get to Utah. There are two groups in the Salt Lake City area that have asked me to come. We'll see.

Presenting Remotely

Yesterday I presented to the Charlotte SQL Server User's Group. Since I live in Denver, it didn't make a lot of sense to travel to Charlotte, as much as I would have liked to see Peter Shire of SQL Sentry and a few other friends in the area. I'd watched Joe Webb do a remote presentation a few months ago, so I had an idea of how it would go, but this was the first time I'd tried it.

I realized that I had a few things in my slides that were looking for audience input, like some survey questions, so I ended up changing the slides Mon night, and then Tues night not wanting to use my other email accounts, so getting in a rush to set up a web page and email for my site at The Modern Resume. BTW, I have a blog for The Modern Resume that should get the redirect. If it doesn't, use this link.

So I made a couple mistakes in making last minute changes, and afterwards my web redirect was broken.

It was a hard presentation. I like interacting with people and this was the first time I'd done a remote talk. The talk was through GoToMeeting, set up by SQL Sentry (Thanks for that), and they showed a few slides from their side before making me the presenter.

I'd never used GoToMeeting, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I had closed all my software on the desktop and started the Powerpoint deck. I had a phone I was using (landline) for the audio, I was in the basement, dogs locked away, my wife quiet upstairs, it went well.

However I felt like I was speaking in a black hole.

It's really like giving a lecture, and for the most part, I could have just been recording things and not really live. There was only one question during the presentation and none afterwards. Not sure if that means I was good or bad. I'm hoping for some feedback from someone that attended.

I only had an hour, lost a little time at the beginning, and with the changes I'd made, I had to speed things up a little at the end. I hate doing that, but I wanted to leave time for questions, expecting a few. Every time I've done this (4 so far), I've had questions.

My wife later gave me a few things I should have done. She's done quite a few webinars with GoToMeeting and she suggested:

• Configure my desktop to show questions during the presentation.
• Upload my slides and have them delivered from GoToMeeting so I can keep my desktop running.

I also had a few other things I did.

• Cleared the desk so I wouldn't fidget with pens, etc.
• Set my watch on the desk so I could see it and monitor time (Powerpoint does a bad job here)
• I had water and coffee handy
• My cell phone was next to me with the conference number entered in case things went bad. I also had the PIN code on a sticky.

Things I wished I'd done:

• Uploaded Powerpoint deck.
• Monitored Twitter during the talk (not sure I could have typed, but I wish I'd see things go by)
• Fixed the web site up front (worked on my machine, sigh)

Presenting remotely was definitely different than live and I'm glad I made a few changes. I'm not really sure how it sounded and flowed, so I'd love feedback if anyone has it.

The Modern Resume - Building Your Brand

The PPTX for my presentation is available here: The Modern Resume - Building Your Brand - 3

Version 3 has a number of notes and includes some changes for remote presentations. I converted this down to a PPT 2003 format from 2007, so if it doesn't look correct, that's the reason.

I have it on Google, so here's the iFrame as well:

Colorado Springs SQL Server User Group

After the remote presentation tomorrow morning for the Charlotte SQL Server User Group, I'm driving down to the Colorado Springs SQL Server User Group to give the presentation a second time to them.

The event is at 5:30 at Configuresoft. More information here.

Charlotte SQL Server User Group

I'm presenting The Modern Resume: Building Your Brand tomorrow for the Charlotte SQL Server User Group. I'm doing this one remotely, and that's new for me. I try to include the audience in the presentation and this will be a join desktop/audio conference line, so I need to rework the presentation a bit to deal with that.

Sign up here.

Presenting at the Rocky Mountain Tech Trifecta

I presented last Saturday, February 21, 2009, at the Rocky Mountain Tech Trifecta. My session was one of the last ones of the day, and I'm sure with great weather in Denver (50F+) and a Saturday, there were people that decided to head out other than listen to my ramble on about branding.

I had one repeat, Marc Beacom from the Denver SQL Server User's Group, but other than that quite a mix of older and younger people. The stats from my surveys:

32 attendees
Percentage on Myspace - 0%
Percentage on Facebook - 15%
Percentage on LinkedIn - 40%
Percentage on Plaxo - 5%
Percentage on Twitter - 10%

People writing a technical blog: 1/32
People reading technical blogs: about 25 of 32

Again most people didn't know too many of the authors, but they did at least know Kalen Delaney.

Boulder SQL Server User Group Presentation

Last night I went to the February Boulder SQL Server User’s Group meeting up in Broomfield, CO to deliver my presentation on The Modern Resume. It was a windy, chilly day where few people were wandering about. Perhaps President Obama being in town had something to do with it as well.

In any case, it was a small group, <>

It was also a bit different than my other talks. This time I had more talks about “finding a job strategies” than building your brand. That’s OK, and it gave me some other content to talk about. It seems the Dice and Monster are still the places most people go to.

My author survey again showed that most people didn’t know what the people look like. The social networking survey showed about 50% of the people on Linked In and Facebook, no one on MySpace, 15% using Twitter. Plaxo had a couple people with accounts, but not really using it.

In any case, this was good practice for my delivery on Saturday at the Rocky Mountain Tech Tri-Fecta.

Denver Area SQL Server Users Group

I gave the Modern Resume talk at the Denver SQL Server Users Group for their January meeting. About 20 people attended and it went well, despite the fact that I had to bring my little kids with me. My wife got called out of town that week, so the kids had to come with me. They behaved and my daughter even flipped a few slides. That was a good thing to know since I know I can bring them to other groups if I need to.

The talk went well, a little less interactive than the last one with less people. When I asked about the social networking pieces, surprisingly most people were members of Linked In, but very few used Twitter or Facebook and no one used MySpace. That leads me to lean towards LinkedIn being more of a business tool than I realized. I need to keep track of numbers, but I think it was about 10-12 using Linked In, 2-3 on Twitter, and maybe 4-5 on Facebook.

I'm enjoying this talk more and more and looking forward to giving it to a few other groups this year.