Using LinkedIn

A few nice tips here from James Serra on using LinkedIn to enhance your career. Worth checking out.

Want a Better Job? Find a Better Boss

It’s been shown over and over, in a few studies, that bosses can make or break a job. You will enjoy a job more if you have a good boss, and consequently, do better work.

If you are unhappy in your job, is it your boss? Maybe you want to send that article to your boss, or your boss’ boss. Poor bosses hit the bottom line.

If you’re looking for a job, keep this in mind. If someone is a jerk in the interview, chances are they’ll be a jerk when you work for them.

Brand Yourself

I talk about branding, and how it's important to build the brand that represents you the best, and shows what you want to do or be in the future. I heard a great quote from Catherine Kaputa, of selfbrand.com. She said

"If you don't brand yourself, someone else will."

That's very true. People form impressions of you, they conceive their own notions of who you are and what you are good or bad at. They pass these thoughts and feelings along to others, and those impressions may not be what you want.

You can't change all the opinions of you, but you can do the best job you can to present yourself the way you want to be known. If you do that often enough, and consistently, you should make the best impression for your career.

Getting an Interview

This is really interesting. It's a post about a job search (from Brent Ozar, PLF)someone did, targeting specific companies and then using LinkedIn and some intelligence to focus their search and get interviews.

It shows that LinkedIn can work well, and that you should try to tailor your search when possible. This is a variation of using a cover letter, but one without the resume. Try to make contacts, and remember the most important quote from the post:

"people hire people".

Get to know people to get the chance at a job.

Recharge

Whether you're looking for a new job, or just chugging along, it's important that you get some breaks and recharge in your life. I write so much about the ways in which you can improve yourself, and get ahead in your career, and that's important.

However it's equally important that you find time to relax, to recharge, and get away from your career. Whether it's a hobby, vacation, time with your family or time alone, make time for more in your life. Even if you enjoy the career work, or enjoy learning about it, take time to recharge and balance your life.

This week is an unwired week for me. I wrote this just before I left on Sunday, and scheduled it. I'll be at Camp Alexander with my middle son for a week of Boy Scout summer camp. He's enrolled in classes, but I'm mostly there supervising and helping keep the boys organized. Lots of free time for me to read, relax, perhaps write a bit, but mostly to get away from life a bit and enjoy the Colorado mountains.

Make sure you schedule some downtime in your life as well.

Networking Ideas

Written for executives, this piece on networking has some good reasons why you should work on your network. I don't think it requires 100% commitment from the non-executive crowd, but it does require work on your part. As mentioned, be active, follow up with people, and don't force things.

Listen, and engage people in conversation. Get to know them, interact with their ideas, and present your own.

You can do this in person at any gathering, but also online. You can interact with people on Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

Networking isn't hard, but it does require an effort.

Blogging Inspiration

I use Live Writer quite a bit from my Windows desktop for blogging. It’s free and a great piece of software. It’s always running, and as soon as I schedule a post, I click “New” and leave this up in the background.

It’s peaking out of the side of my normal browser window, and I can constantly see it. When I come upon a problem, or get an idea, I flip over to it and jot a note or a few sentences, or even drop in some code. I save it and move on.

I sync my LiveWriter folder across multiple machines, and no matter where I am working, I have a series of posts I can work on.

If I flip through my local drafts, I see the different drafts I have, along with the particular blog for which they are destined. I keep 4 blogs going, on vastly different topics and so save drafts all times when I’m working.

This won’t help you build a better blog, or write better, but it will remove one of the challenges: deciding what to write about. When you have time, scan through your drafts, and I’m sure you’ll find something to work on.