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Talent Acquisition Workplace

Top 10 Networking Books for Your Career Success


Even the most confident, social and outgoing among us may find the prospect of both personal and professional networking daunting at times. From an early age we’re taught “don’t talk to strangers” but when we grow up, we suddenly find ourselves thrust into situations, be it at parties or business events, where we’re expected to initiate conversation with random individuals who we’ve never seen before, don’t know and have nothing to do with.

Not only that, but we’re expected to get tangible results out of such encounters. Be it our matchmaking friend or our sales manager, they expect you to leave that party or conference with a date or a business card.

The issue here is that networking, as well as being a social skill, also counts as a career skill and the majority of us have had no formal career (or social) skills training. However, building up such skills can be an essential part of building your career, so it’s worth investing time in
yourself to learn these skills.

Good, old-fashioned, paper-not-digital books are one of a number of ways to start self-training. Here are ten of the most rated books on networking; a good mixture of classics and newer titles.

Click: Ten Truths for Building Extraordinary Relationships George Fraser

If even the word ‘networking’ fills you with dread and you just find the whole concept too contrived, this book is for you. In it, George Fraser explains he prefers the term ‘connecting’ to ‘networking’ and encourages us to be sincere. It’s not wishy-washy vagueness though-each chapter is packed with practical, ‘takeaway’ advice.

Networking like a Pro: Turning Contacts into Connections Ivan Misner

On the theme of ‘connecting’, have you ever felt like you’re just amassing contacts without forging any type of close connection with them? This book shows you how to resolve this by breaking down a number of networking techniques, illustrated by real life examples.

Breakthrough Networking: Building Relationships that Last Lillian D. Bjorseth

Here’s another book focusing on the long-term nurturing of your network. It guides you through the process from meeting new people to establishing them as close and valued contacts within your inner circle. Like many of the best career guides, Bjorseth has corporate experience herself, so she knows what she’s talking about.

 
The Networking Survival Guide: Get the Success you want by tapping into the People you Know Diane Darling

At Position Ignition we believe in not ignoring your existing contacts but instead finding out what you can do for them and what they can do for you by getting to know them properly. This book echoes these values, although it also explains how to strike up conversations with new
people and how to network anywhere-even on planes!
 


[url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Networking-Career-Success-McGraw-Hill-Professional/dp/0071456031″>Diane Darling

Although this is by the same author, it has a slightly different objective in that it focuses more on getting to know new people than getting closer to the ones you know. Just as valid a lesson-if we never got to know anyone new, we’d never have anyone to get closer to!


Make your Contacts Count: Networking Know-How for Business and Career Success Anne Baber & Lynne Waymon

This is as interactive as a traditional book can get, with various quizzes, assessments and step-by-step plans to guide the reader through all the stages of professional networking relationships. A useful read for all, from entrepreneurs to job seekers.


Highly Effective Networking: Meet the Right People and get a Great Job Orville Pierson

Networking as part of our job search is certainly useful, but a haphazard, confused approach can render it counterproductive. This book helps untangle matters by laying out the steps for a straightforward, targeted approach. Pierson is also honest about the time and perseverance required to get the job we really want.


The Fine Art of Small Talk: How to Start a Conversation, Keep it Going, Build Networking Skills-and Leave a Positive Impression! Debra Fine

What about books for those of us who aren’t even comfortable with starting a conversation when it comes to networking? This one starts right from the start, even providing a list of icebreakers. There’s an accompanying cassette so all in all it’s a varied learning experience!


Savvy Networking: 118 Fast & Effective Tips for Business Success Andrea Nierenberg

This is ideal if you don’t have much spare time for reading, or if you don’t enjoy reading long passages! The advice for business networkers is broken down into takeaway tips, flavoured with some real-life illustrations for variation.


How to Win Friends and Influence People Dale Carnegie

This well-known classic from the 1930s is still relevant to networkers today. Networking is not only about meeting people and getting to know them, but also about treating people in the right way. Chapters like ‘Six ways to make people like you’ may sound a bit ‘high school’ and clumsy but that doesn’t totally invalidate the sentiments behind them. Let’s face it, if someone doesn’t like you, they’re not going to help you, no matter how good a networker you are.

It seems there’s a networking book out there for all of us, no matter what stage of our career-or career transition-we’re at. Books are just one useful tool in building up skills like networking. Try asking friends about their own experiences, seeking out specific training and, of course, getting out there and trying out these books’ tips for yourself. Practice makes perfect! 

Related: 5 Great Ways NOT to Network.


Nisa Chitakasem is the founder of Position Ignition – a careers company dedicated to taking you to the next step in your career. Nisa is passionate about helping individuals find the right career path for them whether it involves finding a more rewarding career, making a career change, figuring out the right career plan or being creative about career directions.
 
For free advice, guidance and information on careers visit the Position Ignition Career Blog or find her on Twitter [url=http://www.twitter.com/posignition”>@PosIgnition

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Workplace

Top 20 Career-Enhancing iPhone Apps

These days, if you’re not implementing technology to help you be more productive, organized, and successful, you’re probably behind the curve. Never fear, the career-minded bloggers at Pounding the Pavement have developed a list of apps that will help you get more out of your smart phone than you previously thought possible. Here they are, the absolute finest of the latest career-boosting applications, ready for you to peruse and enjoy!
 

Apps for the Job Search
  
  

Categories
Employer Branding Talent Acquisition Timebound

Secrets of the Internal Recruiter: David Cherry at McAfee


Today I had a chat with David Cherry, who is a senior international in-house recruiter for McAfee, and an old colleague of mine based in London. He shared very insightful tips for job seekers and his thoughts on the changing career industry, all kept very secret until now!
 

What do you do at McAfee David?

 
Currently I’m a Senior Recruitment Business Partner working in the internal Talent Acquisition Team for McAfee, my day is taken up recruiting (across various functions) throughout Southern and Central Europe and our Emerging Markets region. I am also heavily involved in social media using tools like Facebook and Twitter.
 

Tell us about your background

 
My first job was actually as a QA Engineer for a small software company – I’ve always been interested in technology and being 19 years old, building servers and programming modems was (at the time) the best thing ever! Unfortunately I was made redundant after 9 months, so I did what every does and uploaded my CV on to Monster’s database – this was how I ended up in recruitment and have been working in the industry now for over 10 years, always with a focus on technology,
 
To begin with I joined a small recruitment company in London and began focusing on networking and telecoms recruitment in the UK. Through the relationships I had built I had the opportunity to work for one of my clients (Ochre House) who provide outsourced recruitment and HR solutions, and one of their clients was McAfee, after 3.5 yrs working on site at McAfee I was given the opportunity to move in-house in to a permanent position.
 

What is the job market like in your region (EMEA)?

 
You can get so many different answers to this question depending on who you speak to. Personally I think the job market is increasing and gaining strength every day. At the same time businesses are being more cautious and only recruiting positions which are deemed as critical hires. There are a lot of jobs out there but unfortunately due to the downtown there are even more people looking for those jobs which increases the competition.
 

What’s it like recruiting across so many countries?

 
It’s the most interesting part of my job, I have recruited in at least 30 different countries in my career and whilst it does mean I am incredibly busy every day I really enjoy working with different people, making new contacts and learning about new countries and cultures.
 

What are McAfee typically looking for in a candidate?

 
There’s no silver bullet to this question and every manager and every client I have recruited for will look for something different but being passionate and motivated is a great starting point.
 

What are you 3 best tips for job seekers?

 

  • Be honest

 

  • Spell check your CV/resume

 

  • Be prepared for an interview / have your own questions

 

How important are CVs and cover letters nowadays?

 
CVs are crucial; this is the document that gets you in the door, the document that holds the key to speaking to someone or securing that interview!
 
Covering letters; myself I’m not as interested in these and would tend to go straight to the CV but I do like to see a covering email explaining why someone is applying, their current situation etc… Just not something that’s 5 pages long! The more effort a candidate puts in to their application the more effort you will find a company will put into their response.
 


  

Any horror stories?

 
Several I can think of, but none I can repeat!
 
I did interview someone a few weeks for a customer facing position; I asked a fairly straight forward question ‘What are your main strengths as a communicator?’ to which I got the reply ‘I’m not very good at communicating’ – Moral of the story think about your answers before speaking.
 

Success stories?

 
I’ve seen many in my current position, the best are when you’re involved in hiring someone at the beginning of their career and then over the next few years you’re able to interview them again and, in some case again. Before you know it they become a manager and you start working with them to help build their own team. 
   

What are the social media trends in the career industry?

 
Social media is gaining momentum all the time and there are a lot of different options for an employer to take advantage of. When thinking about a social media strategy you should start thinking about the finish line and what you want to achieve – you will then be able to choose the right media and platforms to suit your objectives.
 

Are recruiters, as brokers, threatened by LinkedIn?

 
I would say no, there will always be the need for someone to facilitate, technology and automation can be fantastic and can assist with the speed of a hire but there is a danger to removing the human element and this could just damage your brand as an employer.
 

 

What is your favourite social media tool?

 
Has to be Twitter – it’s one of the most responsive on the market today. You can get your message instantly to wider audience, it has the ability to snowball very quickly. You do, of course have to be careful what you tweet about – what goes on the internet, stays on the internet! You can, of course, follow me on Twitter.
 

What does David have in the pipeline?

 
I’m going to be at the Undercover Recruiter Meetup in London on the 15th September, I will be talking about CV writing, interview tips, job hunting, what are the good and bad things you can do to enhance your chance of success. 
 

What’s the one thing people can do to help you?

 
Candidates can help themselves by keeping their profile up to date on LinkedIn or any other online media they are using for job hunting. If it’s not there is a huge risk that a recruiter would just overlook the profile and move on to the next.
 
Also in my current role as an internal recruiter I would suggest to approach companies directly there is a big push, particularly with the larger organisation to reduce recruiting costs, which means reducing reliance on external recruitment companies.
 

Final words of wisdom?

 
What did you want to do when you were growing up? Are you doing it? If not, why?
 
David Cherry has over 10 years experience in recruitment focused on head hunting and executive search and works across both sales & technical positions in Europe. As part of the internal Talent Acquisition Team at McAfee, David started in a technical recruiting role responsible for engineering and technical support in the UK and Israel.
 
David is currently responsible for supporting the management team in Southern Europe, Central Europe and our Emerging Markets across all levels and functions, with the main focus on sales and sales related positions.
 
Connect with David on LinkedIn and be sure to follow him on Twitter [url=https://twitter.com/davidcherry4″>@DavidCherry4 

Categories
Workplace

What Does Your Online Persona Say About Your Personal Brand?

Social networking sites are often advertised as a place where you can socialize with friends, family, and acquaintances. Nobody ever thought they’d find purpose in background checks! But then more and more recruiters and employers are using these sites as a valuable tool when screening potential employees. So if you’re currently looking for a job,…

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Timebound Workplace

Top Social Media and Job Search Tips by Bill Boorman

What are your favourite social media tools? That is really hard to answer. Channel wise, my preference is always for Twitter and Tweetdeck is the tool that enables me to filter the stream properly. (I have close to 6000 followers.) I also use Hootsuite when I’m out and about because it is entirely web based…

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Workplace

Top 7 Ways to Kickstart Your Twitter Job Search

I love Twitter and not because I’m an exhibitionist with a short attention span. I love Twitter because it’s an amazing social search engine. I follow people in HR, employers, recruitment consultants, my clients, people who follow me, and lots of other people who just keep me amused. People are always tweeting interesting information, with…

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Timebound

Killer Social Recruiting Tips from Bill Boorman


 
Today I had a chat with the very insightful Bill Boorman, one of the most omnipresent personal brands you will ever see in the career industry. He has his fingers in many pies (#tru events, blogging, training, consulting, speaking to name but a few) and he shared some great wisdom for recruiters, job seekers and others in the career industry. This interview actually got so long that I’ve decided to post the 2nd part later – stay tuned for that!
 

What is your day job Bill?

 
I don’t really have a day job as such, more a series of over lapping projects. My time is divided in to 5 disciplines:
 
1: Training for Recruiters, Recruitment Managers and Agency Owners in all areas of business growth.
2: Consultancy to Recruitment Firms in all areas of operational practice particularly Performance Management.
3: Running and promoting #tru events – The Recruiting Unconference globally
4: Assisting recruiting firms with implement social media strategy and practice
5: Key-note speaking and writing
 

What are the trends you are seeing in the industry?

 
The whole recruitment landscape is changing post recession. My main concern is that whilst recorded open vacancies are increasing month on month, and recruiters are reporting increased placement volume, the level of unemployment is still rising. This tells me that there is a distinct gap between the skills available among job seekers and the skills needed by employers. It is critical for job seekers to research the market and identify where the skills gaps are, and what skills they might have hidden in their past and promote these skills. It might also be a time to look at retraining as the best route to employment.
 
Other trends I have noticed are that job openings are taking twice as long to fill as 12 months ago. This is because hiring companies have introduced extra steps in to the hiring process, with more interviews and extra tests and checks. Companies that have just started re-hiring want to be 100% right, and this has made the process for job seekers quite arduous. In particular, more importance is being placed on the cultural fit between the candidate and the hiring company.
 
Job Seekers need to be patient in the process and not lose faith in opportunities. Keep following up until a post is definitely closed. Because of Job Seeker uncertainty, up to 50% of offers are now being declined. This means it’s worth following the job all the way, and if you get a decline notice, send a positive thanks note outlining why you would be interested in the joining the company and want to be considered in the future. This could just put you back in the frame when the opportunity comes up again; it is a lot easier for the hiring company than starting again.
 
Prepare for every interview in the process as if it is a first meeting. New interviewers want to see different things. Research every interviewer through social media and by running a google search on them. You need a new plan to emphasise your strengths and reinforce your interest and cultural fit at every stage. Employers want to know why you want THAT job and that COMPANY, not just that you want a job.
 
Spend extra time researching the culture of the company. Look up their vision and values. See what other people are saying about them via www.addict-o-matic.com and a Google search. Check who you might be connected to that works there by doing a Linked In search and talk to anyone you know there. (Branch Out on Facebook does the same thing.) Prepare questions for the interview that demonstrate that you have done your research. Always ask questions about things the interviewer has not told you.
 

Tell us about #tru

 
#Tru is a series of recruiting unconferences for Recruiters, HR, Technologists, Job boards and others with an interest in talent. An unconference is unlike a conference in that there is no PowerPoint, presentations or talking heads. Subjects are split in to tracks with 2 – 3 track leaders who start the conversation. It is a lot like live social-media. Events are also low cost at £100 for 2 days, and have a massive networking element.
 
The next UK event is #truManchester on the 8th/9th Sept, with attendees from 9 countries attending. A true global mash-up!
 

What’s your take on social media and recruitment?

 
Social media in recruitment or more specifically Social Recruiting is starting to grow up. Some companies, like #truManchester track leaders SodexoUSA have been at it for a few years. In the past, much of the talk has been about theory and how things could work. There is much more material about now as to what has worked and failed with these businesses.
 
About a third of the internet users are active in social media channels. That means that Recruitment Firms, Corporate Recruiters and Job Seekers need strategies that blend in social rather than being purely social.
 
The key elements that social media brings to recruitment is targeted reach, engagement opportunity, identification of targets and keeping personal, corporate and employer brand in the shop window.
 
Over the next 12 months mobile and video will feature much higher in the social mix, and will need to form a big part of strategy. I also see the channels moving closer together in how they link up. In the UK, Facebook will continue to grow as a recruiting and business channel. For Job Seekers, make sure you have completed your career details on your FB profile. This makes you much easier to find via this channel. Fan pages and FB ads will equally increase in use and results.
 
LinkedIn will remain as the main channel for most recruiters, corporate or third party. This means that it is now more important than ever that you have a decent profile rich with key-words to feature in a search. LinkedIn will develop more social applications and link closer to twitter and Facebook. With more use of the box.net application for embedding documents, video and slideshare, I see Linked In becoming much more of a reference site for individuals and companies with a lot more material other than purely career details. (The blog link and twitter follow applications already do this.) This channel will become much more than a post and pray platform, and smart recruiters and job seekers need to keep an eye on how the engagement options develop.

I use the twitter application to follow all of my Linked In connections that list twitter accounts automatically. This means recruiters or job seekers can find targets on Linked In and engage much quicker to make the right impression. I also expect the paid for Linked In services to develop some serious differentiators from the free service as it now operates, making them essential to serious job seekers and recruiters by early next year.
 
Recruiting on twitter will continue to develop around hashtags on common themes. Twitter chats like #jobhuntchat and #blogchat are becoming an increasingly popular ways for people with shared interests to find each other and share experiences and views. While not massive over this side of the water, I’m expecting these to start springing up in UK streams. This is a perfect place for recruiters and job seekers to start engaging. Applications like TwitterBlast also enable you to follow everyone using a hashtag at once. These common interest hashtags will replace the normal twitter stream by filtering through tweetdeck or other similar applications.
 
More monitoring, alerts and posting applications will be developed for twitter in particular as well as other channels. The job boards are becoming more social, both for brand awareness and communication. Direct Messaging and Facebook Messaging are becoming the preferred form of communicating, with on-line availability to respond to real time requests and questions becoming increasingly important. Applications like Gist, that enable monitoring of all channels, with alerts for messages will become essential in the recruiter/job seeker toolbox.
 
Job boards and corporate sites will increasingly post to all channels through the use of tools like Jobs2Web. Monitoring these streams for job seekers will require signing up for services like JobDeck from Twitter Job Search. With so much information floating about the social channels, Job Seekers and Recruiters will look increasingly to use applications that filter noise and deliver only what is needed or wanted. I expect Social Media use to be much more about keeping informed and up to date with the applications and there uses, than about the channels themselves. The last twitter developer’s conference had something like 3000 applications showcased. Recruiters and job seekers will need to identify trusted sources to keep them up to date with developments and find the best ones to suit their specific needs.
 
Ultimately though, I see the biggest change being the integration of social media and to social recruiting in to communication, recruiting, job seeking or branding/marketing strategy becoming a given part of the plan rather than a stand alone strategy. It will just become a part of how we do things, rather than an area for special attention.
 

You’re best sourcing tips for recruiters and head-hunters?

 
That is really dictated by what you are sourcing for, and what your strategy is. Whether you are applying a just in time sourcing strategy or looking to build a talent pool prior to requirement. Either way you are going to need a strong on-line presence yourself with plenty of connections.
 
I think we have a lot to learn in the UK on sourcing techniques from the U.S. where recruiting is much less data-base focussed and more built around the sourcing model. There are some great resources available to learn from. In particular, I would recommend signing up for the blogs from:
 
: Glen Cathey – The Boolean Black Belt
: Jim Stroud – The Recruiters Lounge – which includes some great “how to” video tips
: Ryan Leary – Recruiting Tools 
: Irina Shameva – Boolean Strings 
 
Closer to home (UK) you can follow:
 
: Katharine Robinson – The Sourceress
: Peter Gold – Hire Strategies 
: Andy Headworth – Sirona Says
: Mark Williams – Mr.LinkedIn 
 
I think that between this crowd, you can keep up with the latest news, thinking and developments in social recruiting. The channels, applications and the way they are being used are constantly evolving and changing. You need to keep involved and following other recruiters to keep up. Collaboration and sharing with other recruiters can be an unusual concept for lots of recruiters, but by stepping out of the silo you will continually learn. In my view, social learning has even more benefits than social recruiting.
 
My personal view is that recruiters need to stop thinking in terms of social-media channels like twitter, Facebook, Linked In or YouTube and think of all social media as a combined communications channel. Post links to all of your on-line places so that it easy to connect in all of the channels and use applications that track who is connected to you where. Each of the channels requires a different style of content and writing. People will get quickly bored of you if you cross post the same material and comments in all channels or do nothing other than post jobs on your accounts. Content and regular engagement is key to making social sourcing work.
 

Final words of wisdom?

 
“It’s been emotional!”
 
– Vinnie Jones in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Related: Top Social Media and Job Search Tips from Bill Boorman.
 
Bill Boorman has always worked in and around recruiting as a Recruiter, Trainer, Operations Director, Consultant and Coach. He has spent more than 27 years in this industry which sadly qualifies him as a veteran. (substitute old!) During this time he has worked in most markets and has been responsible for the full H.R. and Training function for a recruitment business that grew from 6 to 147 branches. He has implemented I.T systems, designed performance management and appraisal systems among most other things.
 
Over the last 5 years he has been working as a consultant and trainer to growing recruiting firms across Europe. The last 18 months saw his introduction to social media and social recruiting. He claims to now be best known as @BillBoorman on twitter, and have been described a twitterholic that never sleeps, omnipresent and even a whirling dervish! (Thanks @fishdogs!)

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Workplace

Top 5 Psychometric Tests for Your Career Success

To make a successful career change, you have to know what type of career is going to suit your personality. Psychometric tests are a quick, convenient way of “personality typing” — getting an idea of which specific personality group you fall into in terms of skill sets, ambitions, and aspirations. Once you know which group…

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Workplace

Cheat Sheet to Your Best Interview Answers

When preparing for your next job interview, you’ll want to have answers to these common job interview questions. These answers are just a guideline to follow. The most important thing to do is to be honest and be yourself when answering these job interview questions. 1. Tell me about yourself. Perhaps this the most common…