Out With The Old, In With The…Well, You Get It!

Oh. My Gosh. Becky.

It’s a New Year!

I get pretty excited about the New Year, mostly because it means NEW (Hint: it’s in the name). Here in the middle of the United States, we had new snow, which only underscored the illusion of a clean slate. Let’s talk about NEW.

New Stuff

In 2013, you get new stuff. You know what I mean: a new calendar, a fresh desk, a new set of books. I, like a lot of people use this time to get organized. Label your folders (on line or offline), create more organized to-do lists or assemble a calendaring system you’ll actually use. My resolutions are that I will actually use Evernote (for white papers and in-depth articles) across all my devices and that I will use Shoeboxed to keep track of my traveling receipts.

New Processes

You know what’s hard? Change. Especially when you are working within a team. If everyone goes around changing their processes all the time, it makes for a very disorganized team. That’s why the first week in January makes everyone a little nuts; everyone’s personal goals are either not aligned or vocalized with corporate ones. What if you called your (virtual or in-person) team together for a bit of accountability and support? Is the manager going to work out over lunch instead of hearing complaints? Is Becky trying to have a “no-email zone” from 7:00-10:00 am? When you share your new processes with others you work or consistently interface with, you increase your chances of success. My new process for the year is no phone calls after 4 pm. When I take these calls, my children are often home from school and I either forget what was said or am worried about noise on the line. When I take calls early in the day, I remember to send notes and really focus on the call itself. I’ve already notified my coworkers and clients.

New Tech

Even if you aren’t one of the lucky ducks that received a new phone, computer or tablet this year, you can still take advantage of the new tech 2013 has to offer. In fact, much of it isn’t really new at all. I have found that I don’t really adopt new tools at the rate I used to and I believe that is to my detriment. Voice to text apps while I’m on my morning walk? Yes, please. With constant upgrades on software, new consumer and enterprise apps being developed daily and constant must-have lists, there is surely one new tech change you can make to your daily routine. I have been trying to incorporate Google+ into my sharing routine and took the last day in 2012 to go over the software and systems I am using and make all the updates. I also decided to print out and laminate shortcut cheat sheets that have saved a great deal of time. Need some ideas? Check out followup.cc and IFTT to automate like…everything.  Make sure you check out the user manuals for your enterprise software or ask your rep to take you through a fresh demo, I bet there are new features you’re dying to try.

New Space

Clean, clear desktop. Fresh lines of notebook paper. Even my Facebook timeline somehow seems clearer. Even if you didn’t have a chance to de-clutter before 2012 was over, you can still organize your space and get rid of detritus post haste. The obvious tidying up has to do with “real life” but what about creating a new and organized Dropbox folder or using unroll.me to tidy up your inbox? Is your desktop looking cluttered with screenshots and to-do items? If so, take 15 minutes to de-clutter so that you can start 2013 with a clear mind (and PC). My number one item? Begin syncing my project management tool of choice, Asana with Dropbox folders. They offer the integration now and it’s a no brainer.

New Ideas

I’ll be the first to tell you that the “predictions” lists are kind of “meh” this year. That is, they say the same things as last year, basically. However, there are some gems out there. Jobcast has an interesting one, as do I (yeah like I’m not gonna put mine in here) and Ihrim’s, while long, is good. New ideas are everywhere and as a cutting edge recruiter (which you are right?) you should want to pay attention to these. I work with a ton of vendors. Their primary goal in life is to get you, yes YOU, on a demo. So call up employee referral vendor Zao or Video Interviewing platform Wowzer or ATS vendor RecruiterBox or RMS provider Skillstream. Don’t get gamification? Call Badgeville. Confused about social sourcing? Check out Entelo. Need CRM tips? Ping Avature. My point is, all these companies (and many, many more – head to Software Advice and Capterra for list after list of HR Tech Products) are interested in educating you. Sure, they want to sell but they also want to get their concepts out to market and if you understand them you only bring valuable knowledge back to your firm or organization. Carve out 20 min a week for a new product demo. At the very least, it will give you questions to ask your OWN vendor community.

New Goals

I know that it’s a bit passe in some circles to create goals, but it’s my favorite part of the New Year. If you believe, even for just a few days, that you can radically alter something about yourself, that’s still pretty impressive! It’s a childlike feeling. So give it a shot. Can’t lose 20 lbs? How about 10? Don’t want to make 40 new calls a week? Maybe try for 15. Scared to attempt to learn a language? What about planning a trip to that country instead? My point is, goals have the inherent, beautiful quality of giving you new faith in yourself and that will impact your work positively for sure. I’m trying the Daily Burn.

Happy New Year!

Maren Hogan

Maren Hogan is a seasoned marketer and community builder in the HR and Recruiting industry. She leads Red Branch Media, a consultancy offering marketing strategy and content development.

Filed Under: Business, Creative, Humor, Life Skills, New Year, Personal Development, Productivity, Professional Tagged With: , , , , , ,

4 Tips for Achieving Your Professional New Year’s Resolutions

new year's resolutions

Although many resolutions are focused on personal development—like losing weight or quitting smoking—many of them are catered toward professional development, such as getting a promotion or finding a better job. Since New Year’s resolutions are notorious for being abandoned by February, it’s important to approach your professional goals with a concrete plan within your reach. To discover some helpful tips on reaching your own New Year’s resolution, consider these.

Resolution #1: Get a promotion

Almost every working professional believes he or she should have a promotion, but a much smaller portion is actually working toward making this wish a reality. To get that coveted promotion, you have to put yourself in a position where you truly deserve it. This means working harder, investing more time and effort in your company by submitting ideas for improvement, and furthering your education to qualify for higher positions. The latter approach can be one of the best ways to show your boss you are a true go-getter. Although you may put your heart and soul into your work, you can still take advantage of educational opportunities by considering online alternatives to further your degree.

Resolution #2: Quit your job

Quitting your job puts you in a slightly less favorable position than the one presented above, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be a negative or dramatic step. New years are about new beginnings: out with the old and in with the new. If you’ve been slaving away at an unfulfilling job with little sign of advancement or improvement, quitting may be a pragmatic decision.

However, if you truly believe your decision is reasonable, then be reasonable in your approach. Submit a formal letter of resignation that respectfully discusses your decision with your boss and co-workers and gives the company adequate time to find a replacement and tie up loose ends. Leaving on good terms not only benefits the company, but also benefits you when searching for a new job.

Further reading at So You Want to Leave a Job You Hate.

Resolution #3: Find a job

Following resolution number two, finding a job can be one of the most difficult resolutions to achieve when the economic odds are against you. However, remaining diligent and assertive throughout your search will generally pay off in the end. The first thing you should do is use every resource possible to help you find a job. This could include connecting with the career services department at your alma mater, industry associations, networking groups, and former professors and peers to discover new job leads. All of these resources can put you in the right place to land the job you’ve been searching for.

Resolution #4: Improve your professional appeal

Improving your professional appeal usually goes hand in hand with any other professional goal or resolution you may have this year. To improve your professional appeal, and to avoid getting into a monotonous routine at work, you can work on your professional development by taking advantage of a number of opportunities. Education should be a number one focus, since it usually has the biggest impact on an employer’s opinion of you. Consider going back to school either in a traditional setting or online to enhance your degree. You can also take training courses relevant to your profession to obtain specialist certifications and give yourself extra credibility. If you’re not finding any luck in the job market, consider trying out internships to gain experience and develop connections with other professionals in your industry.

Making resolutions is easy, but keeping them is tough. Commit to following each step that gets you closer to a new job, and you might be celebrating next year with a better job and a promising career.

Further reading at 7 Little Known Ways to Jump Start Your Career this year.

Jesse Langley lives near Chicago. He divides his time among work, writing and family life. He writes on behalf of Colorado Technical University and has a keen interest in business blogging and social media.

photo by: Victor1558

Guest Blogger

This post is written by a guest blogger. If you are interested in submitting a guest post, check out our Guest Post Guidelines - we look forward to hearing from you!

Filed Under: Career Management, Life Skills, New Year, Professional Tagged With: , , ,

15 Most Popular Blog Posts of 2011

In case you missed any of thse most popular posts on The Undercover Recruiter, here they are for your reading enjoyment. Just like last year, the most popular topics are by far social networking, personal branding and interviewing. Our readers also like infographics which you will see featured in the list a few times.

A huge thank you goes out to all our guest bloggers from around the globe, if you feel like contributing a post to The Undercover Recruiter in 2012, check out our guest post guidelines.

Here goes the top 15 list of 2011:

1. Social Media in Recruitment – How Far is Too Far?

Where do you draw the line between candidate research and infringing on someone’s privacy?

2. INFOGRAPHIC: How Employers Use Social Media to Screen Candidates

It’s no secret employers and recruiters check up on applicants online, see more right here.

3. Top 10 Android Apps for Personal Branding and Job Searching

As the use of Droid phones is one the rise, so are apps for managing your career and brand.

4. How To Back Up Your LinkedIn Connections

A quick practical tip to ensure you keep a backup of your LinkedIn network.

5. Why Should You Care About Personal Branding?

A question that gets bandied around a lot, see what this article has to say about it.

6. Five Reasons Your CV Doesn’t Get You Noticed

Ever wondered why you don’t get an interview request? Could have something to do with your CV or resume.

7. And the Interview Was Going So Well Until…

Ever heard of the ‘post interview walk’? It’s where an interview can make or break!

8. INFOGRAPHIC: Before LinkedIn, How Did Our Ancestors Find Jobs?

Yes it’s the question you’ve been pondering on and this graphic will tell you exactly how they did it.

9. How To Act When Headhunters Call You

Are you terrified of headhunter calls? Don’t be! Here are some useful tips for anyone speaking to headhunters.

10. INFOGRAPHIC: How Londoners Use Social Media to Find Jobs

Interesting stats about the behavior of Londoners and jobs searching on social media.

11. Why Do Recruitment Consultants Ask Such Crazy Questions?

A recruiter writes about why her questions might sound silly at times, be assured there is method to the madness.

12. Do You Know How To Sell Yourself In a Job Interview?

People tend to sell everything but themselves in interviews, here’s how to focus on you.

13. How a Videogame Designer’s Blunder Led Him to Conquer the World

An un-orthodox job search for an un-orthodox job in Silicon Valley!

14. Four LinkedIn Mistakes that Could Hurt Your Career

Make sure you’re not making any of these four mistakes.

15. Ten Secrets to Managing Your Expat Career

Know any expats? Here are the best ways for them to stay successful abroad.

Would you like to add any other posts to this list? Please do so in the comments below!

Image credit Tom Newby

Jorgen Sundberg

The original Undercover Recruiter, after 7 years in tech recruiting Jorgen now runs Link Humans, a social media marketing agency in London.

Filed Under: Monthly, New Year Tagged With:

Who Else Wants Perfect New Year’s Resolutions?

Having done recruitment for long, I know that most of us have a think over the holidays and come up with revolutionary plans for January and the year ahead. Some of us follow through on these plans, some of us don’t. What are the factors that make for effective resolutions? Well, these are rules that work for me and people around me so I thought I’d share them well before you start getting to work on next years action plans.

1. Make them achievable

Don’t cheat yourself when making resolutions. If your goal was to quit smoking this year and the last 7 years, you are not very likely to kick the habit next year. If you set a goal that you won’t achieve, it will only have a demoralizing effect on your psyche and you are worse off. Be honest with yourself and set objectives that will challenge and stretch you but definitely are achievable with hard work.

2. Make them measurable

What gets measured, get done as the wise fellow said. Buying a house on stilts, travelling to Patagonia, auditioning for the X-Factor are all goals that you will know when you have achieved. Merely saying ‘learning old church Slavonic’ isn’t good enough, it has to be more detailed than that. Make it: ‘will take 50 lessons and pass exam level B and be able to order fine wine at a restaurant in Slavonia’. If you can come up with milestones or through goals, that’s even better as you can track your progress easier.

3. Write everything down

We already know that goals that are not written down are simply dreams, this goes for New Year’s Resolutions as well. Start working on a master list of what you want to achieve, break it down into categories and set estimated finished dates. These lists and deadlines will be hardwired into your brain and your unconscious will take you closer to your objectives every day.

4. Spread the word

You have to commit to your resolutions and by telling the world, i.e. your friends and family, you establish accountability. If you tell everyone you are running a marathon next year, they will pester you with questions for the next 12 months so you had better get out and train.

5. Support network

If you can, try to buddy up with someone else that has the same objective as it’s great to have peer support at hand. This could be friends or it could be other like minded folks online, at the gym, at your philately club etc. A support network is extremely useful when you ground to a halt or when you achieve a through goal and find yourself a bit lost for what to do next. People love to talk about their own exploits and how they got there so make use of others’ success.

6. Reward yourself

Remember to encourage your small wins with little rewards. These rewards will keep you going when you need it the most. Rewards can be anything from a cup of ginger tea to a weekend in the city of lights. Whatever rewards work for you, remember to hand them out when appropriate.

7. Flexibility

Remember that what seems like the perfect plan in December could all change once January kicks in. External factors will always move the goal posts and you have to factor these in. Just because your resolutions are an annual thing doesn’t mean you cannot change them as you go along, just like you would with any goals in life.

Examples of resolutions

If you are stuck, why not do your bit for the environment and recycle other people’s most common resolutions? Here is a little list:

  • Change jobs (very popular in January, fizzles out in February/March)
  • Buy something big (a house, car, boat, dilapidated factory in Pennsylvania)
  • Get fit (sign up for a gym, start cycling, taking the stairs at work)
  • Get involved in your community (charities, local government, activism)
  • Work on your personal brand (all the rage nowadays)
  • Start writing again (manuscript, book, blog posts)

Your turn

What are your resolutions for next year? Please share and inspire others!

Image credit Hamed Saber

Jorgen Sundberg

The original Undercover Recruiter, after 7 years in tech recruiting Jorgen now runs Link Humans, a social media marketing agency in London.

Filed Under: Life Skills, New Year, Timebound Tagged With: , ,