What caught my eye in the September copy of Harvard Business Review was a short article on how to find “well connected” people.

http://hbr.org/search/tapping%252520the%252520power%252520of%252520social%252520networks/

As the article says, using a little data on who interacts with whom, you can visually identify good (and bad) prospects that may help you find work or sell goods. The article calls this “network science”—though you and I might call it “common sense”.  What the article does do VERY WELL is to provide a simple way to visualize who the key connectors are.

Guess what!  Many industries are already using this visual technology to drive sales.

For instance, HBR identifies the pharmaceutical industry as one that uses visual data to track which doctors are most effective in using (selling) their drugs.

Why not use this visualization yourself?

The implications for job search are immediately obvious.  Network science provides a visual picture of “low influencers” vs. “high influencers” vs. key connectors.

In the past I’ve recommended finding key connectors and cultivating them in order to find a job, but, if you are an executive in THIS economy, I’m tweaking my recommendation.

It is time that YOU worked to become a key connector for others because, as HBR notes, “Knowledge has always flowed along social connections.”  Why be in search of a super connector, when you can be one yourself?

What does this entail?

You must become the person other people see as the “go to” person for information in their field.

For instance, my colleague, Rob Cain, is showing off his extensive knowledge of the Chinese media industry with his new blog.  If you are interested in this area, Rob is the guy you have to meet.  And Rob knows about opportunities before the rest of us.  HE is the super connector in his field.  To get on to his blog, email him at Robert Cain” storyarkmedia@gmail.com

Congratulations, Rob, on showing us how to become known as experts in a field.

Introduction 
Often people want to withdraw after a job loss. The reality is a person should plan to connect with people. Volunteer; join a job networking group. Talk to people while grocery shopping, filling the car with fuel, visiting the library, walking the dog, getting a haircut (hairstylists know lots of people), etc. A person should be prepared to tell people the type of position desired and succinctly describe skills/accomplishments to support desired position. Over 60% of jobs are filled by networking, people talking with people.
~Frankie Walters

Pre-Planning 
• Gather contacts’ direct phone numbers and emails
• Collect quantifiable facts about accomplishments for resume
• Prepare resume; seek help of friends/family for honest review and feedback
• Update LinkedIn profile to reflect skills and accomplishments
• Reach out to recruiters
~Dawna Mason

Immediately After Job Loss
• Add to LinkedIn Connections and Groups (ideally this is kept up on an on-going basis)
• Re-contact recruiters
• Notify friends, family and selected professionals with whom you have relationships, ask if they would be willing to share your resume or introduce you to potential connections
• Seek out someone you know and trust to help with interview skills – both phone and in-person
• Surround yourself with people who are encouraging and positive. At a time like this it is easy to begin to doubt your professional value and skills. Absorb the positive vibes of those who reinforce that you are talented and add value, which will enable you to to project a sense of self-confidence as you begin the interview process.
~Dawna Mason

The Search 
• Re-edit your resume multiple times to make it more readable and pertinent for the types of available jobs, many of which were at a lower level.
• Try consulting and contract assignments to stay in the game.
• Volunteer for a portion of each week to keep your sanity and to have something powerful to say (other than I’ve been looking for a job) when they ask what have you been doing in the meantime.
• Prepare extensively before submitting your resume (cover letters to the right person do work).
• Practice interviewing and develop your personalized spiel/answers for all the questions on every interview list you discover – even if you think you are a great interviewer.
The competition is fierce unfortunately due to the economy and the lack of jobs. Don’t give up.
~Mary-Ann Cogan

Conclusion 
• It is important to practice your interview skills.
• Attend professional network meetings. A career fair can set you up with several interviews in a short period of time.
• Go on interviews even if you don’t think you would care for the job. You might be surprised when you interview and it will give you valuable experience for the job you really want.
~Vivian Caldera

As a national magazine announced, “Here’s a stat that will stop you in your tracks: almost 40% of human resources managers believe that resumes will eventually replaced by user profiles on social networking sites.”

You and I have seen this in action with political candidates announcing their candidacy on twitter. Annoying?  Well, I personally have had someone check my linkedin when they sat down at a luncheon table with me. (I guess he thought I couldn’t see what he was doing with his fingers and phone under the table!) Clearly, my profile was not what interesting to him, because he talked only to others at the table.  The combination of job scarcity, talent excess, and easy access to information enables people – and hiring managers — to find out about you before the salad is served – and if your profile is not compelling enough, you won’t be taking to them over the entre.

This is, like all things, a challenge and an opportunity.  Executives have to begin to treat their linked in profile like their virtual calling card.  They have to mine tweets to find out where the jobs of the future may lie.  And (despite my own desire to avoid it) they need to build a facebook page.

A marketing expert I know, Freddy Nager from Atomic Tango stresses the importance of joining groups on linkedin, tweeting, and building a website to make yourself known before you are on the job market.  So, it is not just joining a linked in group…it is important to participate in the group by making insightful, thoughtful remarks.

And, for the few who are holding on to their resumes – it is not just a one or two page typed document anymore.  I have clients who have put downloadable videos on their resumes, used color to highlight accomplishments and sidebar boxes to add positive recommendations from their colleagues and bosses.  It is now not unusual to have pictures on resumes.

What does this mean for you?  Differentiate yourself using social media while you have a job so when you look for your next one, you will already be seen and known as an expert.

Learn what you want to do and how to achieve the next step in your career progression.  This series of ten weekly seminars starting on October 19th at 6 pm will cover the following:  figuring out what you can do, want to do and what someone will pay you to do!  How to use your allies to find entry into the 20 Companies you would work for and the 30 role models you would love to meet.  Structure your job search and the rest of your career.   You get all the one-on-one support of Executive Membership with content that is delivered in a seminar format.  Enroll now.  $1500 for your career?  You are worth it!  Call 310 474 4447 to enroll.

I have begun to think about job search in military terms (must be because I just finished re-reading the ART OF WAR)…. In any case, whatever the cause, I have come up with ten “rules” for job search – and watch out – I may make a book out of this blog….!

1. Start with yourself.  Make sure you are ready (physically, fiscally and psychologically) for the next step of your career and/or be ready to shift your career.
2. DO NOT start with your Resume.  This is a comforting place to start, but your resume will not get you in the door at the executive level, so don’t waste your time on it now.  Instead do a career “flyer.”  Always have that flyer (or brag sheet) with you.
3. Develop your own cards.   Feel free to put an abridged portion of the flyer on the back of your cards.
4. Steer clear of internet ads, career boards and any mass job mailings, as everyone sees these and at your level – executive – you need to find a job before it hits those mass boards.
5. Be focused and structured.
6. Never go into a meeting asking for a job.
7. Never ask for a job –ever.
8. Cultivate your hidden connections to enable them to flower into super connectors for you.
9. Never just “network.”  Give before you ask for something.  Even sometime as simple as “Will you take a look at something I’ve put together (your flyer)) requires that you have established a relationship prior to the ask.
10. 10.  Use all the arms in your arsenal – especially linked in, twitter, etc.    Even though you may hate using these tools, your next employer may love them.  +

Unemployed and 50:  Career Attack

Jack was a “young 50” and he ran a division of a large company that was making money.  In fact, Jack’s division was making a lot money – during a recession, with the corporate overhead tied like a noose around his neck, Jack was still the guy making money.  (Feel free to substitute Jill, if you are a female.)

Jack was a pretty structured guy.  Three times a week he worked out at the gym (you wouldn’t call him “buff,” but you would say, “fit.”  He was rarely sick in the 19 years he rose up in the company. He was a company man.  He had done his share of overnight preparation for acquisitions, board presentations; he had done his share of re-organizing and knew that nothing was certain in this world.

Then, for about a month, Jack began to notice that his boss was avoiding him.  Nineteen years, Jack had lived through a bunch of bosses – some good – some awful – some introverted – and couple, just plain incompetent.  So, Jack wasn’t worried about his boss who was a pretty decent kind of woman. Sure there were lay offs, but the company he worked for was hiring.

Then.

The boss and the Human Resources person came into his office for an unannounced chat.  They spoke for about 30 minutes, but the only thing he heard was… we have reorganized and we don’t need your position.  (Remember George Clooney in Up In The Air).

Oh, the talking went on for a long time more ending with the HR person inviting him to come and see the wonderful way the company had prepared him for unemployment.  What a future he would have as an unemployed 50 year old!

This book is designed for the executive who is in Jack’s shoes.   What do you do first?  Who do you talk to?  What do you say?  And when do you permit yourself to lie in your closet in fetal position because what happened was not fair

Who knows what the unemployment rate in this country is for 50 year olds.  And who cares?

When your position (it is NEVER “YOU.” It is “the POSITION”) is “right-sized”  (and, by the way, why don’t they fire the person who “wrong-sized” your company?), no matter what they say, it is PERSONAL.

This is the Career Attack.

The biggest risk you face RIGHT NOW is not the blow to your financial worth, but the blow to your self worth.  Now is the time to fight.  Don’t fight the Company – fight hold of who you are and all that is dear to you.

All you ask your Company for right now is time.  Forty-eight hours.  Sign nothing.  Do nothing for 48 hours.

Find a way to get out of the company grounds without attracting attention and go someplace quiet.

First:  list all the curse words you will allow yourself to use to describe the situation.

Then:  list all the things, the values, the funny habits, the unusual skills, the care that you have in how you handle people – list all that describes who you are.

Throw away the first list…

And let the second list guide you – go on autopilot for a bit – just keep tethered to who you are — a good 50 year old person with kids, debt, a working wife and a caring heart. (That you want to keep in good shape)

Call your wife and ask for help.  Not financial help.  Just the “little bit of slack” kind of helps and tells her you will need her to talk through the rest of your lives.

Call your best friend(s) next and ask for the same help.

With their help (and maybe your financial manager), develop your own secret plan.  Tell NO ONE your secret plan.  Partially, I give this advice because the secret plans change!  You probably will NOT have to move out of your house tomorrow.  You probably will have to change some of your spending habits.

Have your talk with your key people.  Kick around some of the thoughts you have been having.

Then, and only then,

Go back to the company and plan (with your boss/hr person) for at least the following items:

1. Get an agreed upon timeframe for the announcement of your position’s (!) departure.

2.  Get agreement on how the “announcement will be made?” Who will make it?

How you/others will communicate to your subordinates?

One person I coached sent a funny, warm letter to his direct reports talking about their time together.   It worked for him.  Another introvert avoided the “going away party” route and individually said goodbye to the people for whom he cared.

3.  Get agreement on how you will get your office emptied?  Make sure you keep all the things that are YOURS (your personal contacts– and at 19 years most contacts are personal AND professional), your books, your pictures, and your personal files.  When I got right sized, my boss wanted to look into my locked box of personal items (Who knows what I could keep in there that might be precious to the company?).  Tampons.  He let me keep them.

It is so easy to say something nasty, or evil at this point (or it was for me).   This is where you remember your list of “who YOU are.”  NEVER violate that list.

It is probably a violation of the “list” to speak ill of your company, boss, the company strategy, etc.  Do not violate yourself.  Others have already violated you.

5.  Get your own “tools” because the Company will take the ones you are using.  Get a computer, a phone, a car…

Congratulations… You have probably gotten through the First Week of the Career Attack.

Next week – next blog…

“Fired.” “Right sized,” “terminated,” “severed,” “we’ve gone in a different direction,” “we’ve changed strategies,” “you get two weeks severance,” “good luck in your next opportunity.”

These are all words that can bring any adult to their knees.   And in Los Angeles there are millions of people who have hear those words.

Here are the things you need to do to take back control of your career.

1. Take control of your finances.  Put in a safe place (ha!) the equivalent of what you will need to live on for ONE YEAR.  Can’t do that?  Learn to be cheap. VERY cheap.  Take roommates on in your house; take your lunch to work.  Fun? Read a book you’ve borrowed from a friend.
2. Use every means possible to learn and make yourself more valuable to your current company or the next one.  (Learn on the job, by talking with friends who happen to be experts in a field, go to conferences (volunteer to help, so you don’t have to pay), take on line, “blended learning,” or in class programs, webinars, volunteer, etc.)
3. Grab anything your company has to offer that can teach you new skills.  Take on new projects (work on enterprise wide systems, in-house facebook pages, learn how to do kick-ass presentations, etc.)  Have the people you work with document what you’ve done and have them write a recommendation for you on Linkedin.
4. Learn how to use social media to make yourself an “expert” (see above note on Linkedin).
5. On your own time (weekends, nights, etc.)  learn NEW skills and then use them to get results in a volunteer activity.
6. Become invaluable to your current job:  become the expert in sustainability, social media, artificial intelligence, analytics – any skill that your company needs to become a leader in the field.
7. Lose your ego.  If you get fired, take ANY job while you WORK to get another job.  Call Robert Half (Dawna Mason is a goddess there!) to get project work if you are in finance.  Use Global Resources.  Drive a taxi (and write a blog about the weird stories you learn while driving!)  Volunteer.  You were worth $1million a year.  Well.  Now you must find a way to re-value yourself.
8. Remember that any job change affects your whole family.  Get your whole family involved in this “new adventure” of finding work.

It is self -serving to me to say, “get a good coach” – but I will say it any way.  Get a CAREER coach who has done job placements.  DO NOT spend money on “life coaches” (unless you have extra money and need a life).

No one at your company has the ability or time to watch out for you, your desires and your long-term goals.  A company cannot afford to become your family (with some very, very few notable exceptions).

TAKE Control of your career.  NO ONE else can do it, except you.

I don’t know about you, but this last round of econocraziness in Washington has made me rethink my politics.  And it has caused me to reaffirm a few of my values.  When I vote for the next Los Angeles candidate, I will be using a test to see if the candidate deserves my vote.  See if you think the test makes sense.

1.  What would you do to create jobs?  No, I don’t mean this generally.  I mean, would you refurbish LAX?  Would you pave a road?  Would you improve the workflow at the DMV?  Even better, would you make the DMV open every day of the week?  Would you woo back the headquarters of major US firms?  I want specifics.

2. What would you do to make taxation fair?  I don’t know the answer to this, but I DO KNOW that we need to add taxes for those who make more than $1 million dollars a year.  To me, that seems like a no-brainer.

3.  How will you improve education?  California used to have a great University System and pretty good public schools.  Now we are rival states for the worst public schools in the country.  What would you do to reinvent our failing system?

4.  How will you promote innovation?  This is the 21^st Century – LA is relying on tourism to provide a major source of income and jobs.  Come on.  Can’t the UCLA graduates we are turning out do something more than lead tour busses that pass Adam Sandler’s house?  What ideas do you, as a proposed “leader” have to put Los Angeles on par with innovation in the Bay Area?  Innovation is tied to job growth. Have you, Mr./Ms. Candidate, noticed that Los Angeles is in the bottom of the metropolitan areas in regard to employment and the Bay Area is on top?

5.  Do you KNOW the region?  During the last race for governor, I asked a candidate what would be done for the LA Region.  The answer:  “Isn’t UC Irvine in the LA Region?   I’d give UC Irvine more money.”  Really?  You just failed passing my checklist.  I’d make sure any candidate for any position in California knew SOMETHING about the LA Region.

In this test, there is no “free ride.”  Our region depends on the right answers.

This is an important question for you to consider.

Why?  Because executives hire people they like.  (Remember the book Emotional Intelligence?)  A likeable excutive will be hired over an UNlikeable one…every time.

Work in the 21st century is integrated, team oriented work.  Being able to work within a team structure is vital.  Being liked and trusted by team mates is vital.  So, assess yourself in light of a few of the following questions.

1.  Are you a pro at listening?  A good listener usually spends more time quiet in a conversation than the time s/he spends talking.  A good listener asks great questions of us, and we find that charming.

2. Do things go “in one ear and out the other” for you?  The ear must be connected to the mind.  We have all been with executives who are on their blackberries as we are delivering the presentation it took us days to develop.  And, when we have been in that position, we often feel diminished, unheard, and UNcharmed.

3.  Are you empathetic?  Some executives get unnaturally focussed on the matter at hand.  ”So what if you just had your first child… where is the report I asked about?”  Not charming.

4.  Are you humble?  Much research has been devoted to the executive who wins by being nice.  Arrogance is suitable for a few people in positions like those executives in “Too Big To Fail” — for the rest of the executive population, humility is charming.

5.  Are you trustworthy?  Trustworthiness is a key to keeping long term relationships.  Relationships are dependent on the concept that “if I do something for you, I can trust that the favor will be returned.”  When was the last time you “had someone’s back”?  When was the last time you did a favor for someone — just because you could?  That is charming.

So, do you want to get hired?  Are you truly charming?   Consider the correlation.