“There’s a guy works down the chip shop swears he’s Elvis / But he’s a liar and I’m not sure about you” – Lyrics by Kirsty MacColl In pre-social media days the traditional hiring process was thus: Advert in paper, CV posted with covering letter, interview, second interview, offer negotiation and then references. Pretty linear stuff…
Category: Talent Acquisition
Struggling to attract the right talent? The Employer Brand Index can help you to understand strengths and weaknesses of your company as an employer.
Social media is everywhere – and since there’s no escaping, you might as well learn to leverage it best for your personal brand! Now more than ever, employers are using social media to not only screen applicants, but hunt for potential candidates. Check out this infographic from HiredMyWay on the basics of personal branding with…
Can a good picture help your personal brand? Maybe. Can a bad photo on Facebook ruin your brand? Absolutely. Here’s a nifty infographic from LinkingR about the level of damage your image can make to your online identity on Facebook and other places. Minor damage is incurred by using a default picture (imagine the egg…
Recruitment is a thriving, multi-billion pound industry, satisfying the needs of 1000’s job seekers and employers each year. Despite this, the general perception of recruiters by job seekers appears to be quite negative. For example, the most ‘recommended’ comment (32 people) from a piece on using a recruitment consultant on the Guardian Careers page reads…
We all know that the British economy is going through something of a troubled time right now. Unemployment is on the rise, growth prospects are shaky and youth unemployment is a particular concern, with more than 1 million youngsters currently classed as ‘NEET’ (not in education, employment or training).
This is a cause for concern, particularly as a recent survey from the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) found that 31% of private sector firms plan to make cuts to jobs during the current quarter. This is likely to result in the unemployment queues swelling further and, when you add in the public sector redundancies that are currently taking place too, it all adds up to a difficult picture.
But how does this affect job seekers? In many ways, it is easy to see how they are affected by redundancies due to business cut backs and slow industry growth. There are more people chasing after the jobs that are out there, meaning that competition can be fierce, particularly for the very best jobs or in very competitive industries. Another worry is the north-south divide: the CIPD study found that job prospects in the south are much better than they are in the north.
We also have to take into account issues such as apprenticeships, but we have yet to see whether the challenge will be met.
There are also recruitment challenges involved in all of this: some recruiters are finding it harder to get work themselves as businesses look to cut costs and take recruitment processes back in house. Others are overwhelmed with candidates for vacancies, which in some ways can be seen as a positive thing as it provides more choice, but it can also make it harder to place increasing numbers of unemployed people in jobs.
Overall, even though there are still some excellent employment and training opportunities out there, it seems as though the challenging conditions for job seekers and recruiters alike are set to continue for some time yet.
Related: Salary Trends for UK Start-Up and Tech Jobs (Infographic).
The employer-employee relationship is a crucial aspect of our daily lives as we rely on it for financial stability. However, with the advent of technology and social media, the dynamics of this relationship have significantly changed over time. According to Jobvite’s annual Social Recruiting Survey, 61% of employees are open to or actively searching for…
In traditional branding, the goal is to position your product in the premium segment. When you achieve this you can increase the price of the product and the demand will stay constant. In personal branding, you can do the same thing – you can become an expert.
Who is an expert anyway?
An expert is someone that knows their stuff better than anyone else in their field. When you start a job, you are likely to look up to your seniors and ask them for advice. One of these senior colleagues will be an expert, the person that basically has the best subject matter knowledge and can tell the others how to do things. An expert is not necessarily a people manager, oftentimes they prefer hone their own skills than managing others.
Whenever you see traditional titles like professor, chief architect, field marshal or anything else pompous you can expect the person to be an expert. Nowadays, you get the ‘new’ titles such as ninja or guru to denote an expert. Thought leader is another popular label used liberally across the Internet.
Some would argue that you can only earn your expert status from your customers and peers, never by simply saying that you are one.
Why should you want to become an expert?
It may sound a bit dull but there are a number of advantages to being an expert. Two of these stand out with clear benefits.
The fist one is that everyone wants to work with or buy from the person who has the reputation, credibility and knowledge of an expert. This means there is an increase in demand but not in supply; the person only has so much time to do their work. The first benefit of being an expert is that with more demand, you can choose which customers to take on as opposed to engaging with everyone.
The second clear benefit of being an expert is one of classic economics. I just mentioned that demand goes up but the supply stays the same; this means the supplier can set a higher price for their product or service. Again, instead of catering for the masses and competing on price like everyone else, the expert can choose who to work with and request a higher fee.
How you can become an expert in your field
There are probably as many ways to becoming one as there are experts out there. Some of these ways keep being mentioned and to me they are the top three. The three activities you have to be doing to become an expert are: listening, communicating and creating.
1. Let’s start with listening
Listening is the first one, by this I mean picking up information from all corners of your industry. Read blogs, magazines, books, go to seminars and workshops, watch and listen to the right programmes on TV and radio. When you listen and take onboard all that information, you will by default be improving your skills and getting closer to being the expert every day. Information is power as the old saying goes.
Related: Top 10 Books About Networking Effectively.
2. Communicate with your target audience
Communicating is all about being out there and talking to the people that matter in your industry. Whether it’s a client meeting, a networking event or you are commenting on a blog – it’s all interaction with your target audience. When you are engaging with the community, you will notice exactly what problems they are looking to solve – allowing you to adjust your service offering accordingly.
3. Create something interesting
Creating finally is where you produce content that secures you that expert status. Choose your channel wisely here according to what fits your audience. You could for instance write blog posts, newspaper articles, record podcast or produce video content. If you are really serious about becoming an expert, try your hand at writing a book. Whatever you choose to do, the results of your creative output will lead to further promotion of your personal brand and increased interest from customers.
Related: How Blogging Can Boost Your Personal Brand.
The expert’s advice
5 Kick-Ass Reasons to Boost Your Personal Brand Today.
Image credit Angelo Gonzales
The co-founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman recently published his new book “The Start-Up of You“. One idea is what they call “I-We” – how the power of your network out to the third degree magnifies your individual capabilities. It used to be “who you know”, now it’s also “who the people in your network know”.…
Working at Carousel Consultancy has been a great experience for me: I’ve been able to combine my love for social media with my passion for helping people (in this case, helping people who are looking for jobs). Unfortunately, it’s time to move on due to personal reasons, so it seemed appropriate for me to share…