Time for Some Digging

When you are looking for a new job, networking to keep your options open or finding consulting work; you have to be ready to tell your story.  Our goal is for our students develop their personal positioning pitch so they can tell their unique story when asked at anytime.

Before developing their pitch they must do some self-reflection that we call Dig Deep.  The first module of the WhyHire.me personal branding curriculum is to ask many reflective questions of oneself. As individuals we don’t spend enough time thinking about ourselves. We think about projects, others, world issues and more.  But to develop your career you really need to keep asking yourself the big questions.

• What are my personal values and greatest strengths?
• What personalities traits make me unique and stand out?
• Where have I had successes and what do they show about my strengths, personality, and values?
• What do others say about working and dealing with me?  Have I really been listening to what others have to say about my performance, strengths and personality?

Our students answer these questions plus complete a variety of activities, worksheets, and online tools to help complete the Dig Deep Module.  The end result is the words and phrases that will become the foundation of there positioning pitch.  This is the starting point of their online WhyHire.me profile.

Employers, Recruiters and the Web

Many times over, educators ask us how are corporations responding to online personal branding? Why should we consume class time to teach this agenda? How does it help foster career success?  This is the first in a multi-part series covering the WHY as it relates to the online personal branding agenda.

Months ago, I spoke to Kirsti Stubbs, a recruiter with Starbucks Canada. You can check out what she has to say about scouting for candidates within the social media spectrum at this link.

This month, I sat down with Eliot Burdett, a partner with Peak Sales Recruiting. Eliot is a Partner and a very active blogger himself. He and his team make extensive use of the Internet to source and learn about prospective candidates they bring to employers. Eliot shares his views on how a candidate can truly differentiate themselves with an online presence.  He also offers candid views on common mistakes people make when they interact online and apply for jobs.

An active online brand works around the clock and remotely…

One of our Carleton University students, Desirae Odjick, is a 3rd year Commerce student that was keen on landing a summer job that would compliment her career direction.  She took an active roll in the WhyHire.me program last fall (2009) and built out a tremendous looking profile as part of her New Tools and Approaches class at Sprott . Desirae also keeps her profile current through the use of Twitter and Social Bookmarks. By doing this, she clearly demonstrates she stays connected to issues tied to her future career goals and professional interests. This is one of the keys to taking an active roll in conveying your brand!

WhyHire.me puts an emphasis on coaching, online marketing and social media tools through the applications of the 4 D’s of Online Personal Branding in a classroom or online learning setting. Thanks to professor Leighann Neilson, the material was conveyed through active and applied discussions, assignments and tasks pulled from the WhyHire.me learning materials. Now that Desirae is an online pro, guess what? Her profile was discovered by an Ottawa based services firm who hired her over email while she was in Sidney Australia for a school term.

How cool is that?

Start by Digging Deep – Values, Passions and Strengths

Yesterday, my class of Algonquin PR students and I started the process of digging deep.  Many people think that our program is centered around social media tools.  There is no question that technology is a large part of getting your personal brand online but first you have to develop a clear message.

We start the process of self-discovery by looking into several key issues including; personal values, personality, strengths, achievements, passions, the opinions of others and finally, we take a brief look at weaknesses. To many this seems to be a little far from the original expectations of developing an online presence but you have to start at the heart of the matter.

People don’t give enough thought to what they are all about, what they can offer the world, and what they want to offer the world. We’re all so busy, overworked and overwhelmed to give ourselves the time we deserve. It’s easier to think about stuff, to-do lists, tasks, technology, friends, ….. We all need to take the time to think about what’s important to us, what we have to give to others and how we want to continue to develop and grow.

Do you know what your values, passions and strengths are? I hope my PR students now have a better handle on these big issues and now know what their keywords and phrases are, we will see next class.

Into Four Digits

We cross into the 1000 user territory this week. Its going to be interesting to watch students learn from each other and start cross-connecting across schools. Into the breach!

Go…..

The Winter 2010 version of WhyHire.me is up and classes are underway.

With every new version we take 3 steps forward and one step back. The beauty of software development, I suppose. With our enhancements comes the need for refamiliarization. With new features there is always some regression. Like I said a few posts ago, life is beta and software is a part of all of our lives now.

I introduced the second year Algonquin College Public Relations students (the graduates of 2010) to WhyHire.me today. I’m thrilled to be working with them to develop their personal branding using WhyHire.me. They are getting ready to enter the working world and have considerable real world experience for us to work with. They are familiar with social media tools because they have used several in classes already and they are trained communicators that are open and eager.  Couldn’t ask for a better combination.

I asked them to rate what they experienced today in class.  I gave them three options for evaluation – thumbs up, middle thumbs or sideways thumbs, and thumbs down. I think all evaluations should be so simple. This was their answer!

Social media comes to class at Centennial College

In September of 2009, the WhyHire.me learning resources and software were incorporated into a third term course called Career Explorations at Centennial College in Toronto. In November, I dropped in on David Johnson, Dean of the School of Business, for a post mid-term update. This short video covers the background on why the materials and learning platform were used and it offers David’s views on the feedback from students and faculty.

The most interest part of getting WhyHire.me incorporated into a course or entire program is curriculum mapping. Life-to-date, we have incorporated WhyHire.me materials and software into public relations,  e-commerce, technology in business, transition to professional and business skills courses. Stay tuned for a detailed blog post from Patti Church, our Chief Learning Architect. Patti will layout several alternative ways to leverage the software, offline and online course materials, worksheets and additional learning resources.

Creativity Unleashed in the Whyhire.me Program

One of our students, who is privately developing her online personal brand within WhyHire.me, elected to poke something onto Youtube. I have to admit, I was impressed with the message, visuals and authenticity. It was fun to watch!

We were so thrilled to find this piece and see proof that our teachers are igniting passion within their classrooms. Keep up the great work – we truly do look forward to seeing more profiles turned public and shared across the web!

Starting our Co-Op

Amber Naslund, community manager at Radian6 and blogger at Altitude Branding, shared a post today, Social Media is a Co-op.  I like her way of thinking.

Two hours earlier, we were the discussing how our learning content at WhyHire.me has to evolve and develop through collaborative partnerships.  We do not claim to be experts in everything related to our program.  Our team offers great experience in teaching, marketing, coaching, communication tools & approaches and technology development but there are many other pieces to our training that we want to continue to develop and evolve, and we are looking for partners to assist.

So, from Amber’s perspective, I’m starting my co-op.  Over the past few weeks, I have been anxiously awaiting Sue Murphy’s eBook, Creating Video for the Web: Tips, tricks and tools for telling amazing stories.  Sue had been thinking of developing an eBook and we have been looking for some fresh and insightful content to share with our students on the subject of producing video for their profiles.  Sue is making the content of her eBook available on her website at no charge.

This eBook will be a great new resource for our students.  We hope to work with Sue in upcoming months to develop some customized content for our specific application and I will be putting together some new video assignments based on Sue’s content.  The co-op starts.

As Amber Naslund states in her post;

“They’ll build social media like a co-op. Driven by a team united voluntarily, toward common goals, and equally invested in the outcomes.

Collaboration is not just a feel-good buzzword. It’s the idea that our business is built more efficiently through shared knowledge, and shared responsibility.”

I look forward to more collaborative work with Sue Murphy and others with specialties and knowledge that will make the teaching and approach of WhyHire.me more powerful and engaging for our students.  We can’t do it alone.  Well, I guess we could, but like Amber, I don’t think that makes the best product, service or experience for our customers.

Top Twitter Recuiter Talks to WhyHire.me

Just before Halloween, I connected with Dawn Mular, the world’s top recruiter on Twitter and CEO of the Helping Friends Career Network. Dawn was very easy to connect and interact with, given the nature of what she does. She takes a genuine interest in people, collaborative technologies and helping put people to work.

Many times over, school administrators and HR professionals ask why students should be coming out of school with an online brand. I was keen to get Dawn’s perspective on how social media has changed recruiting and how her clients react to seeing more than a traditional 2-page resume about a candidate.  For those that are interested in downloading the entire 10-minute podcast, simply click here.

For those interested in key sections, you can download and listen to key extracts:

Part 1

• How the Helping Friends Career Network got started
• The secret to her success becoming the top Twitter recruiter

Part 2

• Client reaction to social media in the recruiting world
• Stepping outside the traditional recruiting box – how and why
• Important employment trend – green businesses will mean more job / project opportunities

Part 3

• Advice to Educators and Leaders – become part of the movement
• Bring transparency and authenticity to the classroom