Reflections of a Square Peg

Apprentice - Week 4

At last Arrow wins - and by a big margin!

Kinetic's marketing strategy was awful, the two people in marketing should have been brought back to the boardroom and both fired!

In the end Marisa (one of the marketing team) got fired, but Derek should have been there too. If Marisa had spent more time arguing a logical case versus screaming and interupting she might have had a better chance of survival - but everyone in her team had tagged her for firing so she was on an uphill battle.

As for the winning project manager on Arrow, Aaron, he did have one good sales idea - sell bulk and it paid off big time - but in the boardroom he looked totally out of place - more like a kid in a candy store on Halloween than the right hand man to the Donald!

See more details at the official Apprentice blog at Yahoo

Time to Turn the Tables?

Kevin Wheeler has written an interesting article on ERE Network about the future of third party recruiters. "Third Party Agencies - Where Are They Headed?"

I particularly liked his idea of candidates getting a guarantee of the recruiter finding them a job - now that would be something!

Last time there was a shake up in the industry it was the last recession and thankfully it saw the disappearance of many of the unethical 'body shops' that put people in to jobs in the recruiting boom with no thought or care for candidate or even client.

Now technology is starting to shake them up again and it will be the nimble, flexible and creative who will survive.

It's not about just putting someone in a job nowadays - the recruiter has to really understand client, candidate and what is motivating both parties to broker a successful placement.

And successful now means hiring an engaged and contributing employee who is going to make a difference and advance their career at the same time.

If you are a job seeker be sure about the role that you want, the type of company you want to work for and what you want your work day to look like.

If you are an employer be clear about your expectations, be truthful to your mission and become an employer of choice out of strategic necessity.

If you are a career coach think about how you can strategically align yourself with third party recruiters that do not yet offer your services, or work inside companies to help people manage their careers internally - take a look at this coaching colleague, Sue Edwards to see what I mean about being creative and thinking ahead - Development-by-Design

Cross posted at Career Hub - get your free copies of Insiders Guide to Job Search and the all NEW Insiders Guide to Resume Writing

The Art of Branding Yourself in Business

Good article recently on Yahoo's Investment website - check it out here - even the legendary marketing icon Al Ries is now talking about personal branding.

A key with personal branding is to know your target audience and what you are uniquely placed to do for them - as the article finishes - Know your target audience. This is critical to a personal branding campaign. "If you try to do everything, you won't please anybody,"

Great advice - take it.

Monster Roars!

10 years ago when I first arrived in Canada the daily main newspapers were full of jobs, on a Saturday as many as 30 pages - now you are lucky to see 3!

The on line job board has taken over, but according to CareerXRoads survey their impact is not as great as perhaps you the job seeker might think.

In fact I will bet that if you are in active job search mode you are spending way more time looking on the job boards than is either necessary or warranted.

The smart job boards are starting to try and do something about this.

Monster.com has added a couple of new features recently that make your job searching life a little easier and even let you know how you stack up against other candidates for a particular job;

- Previously on this blog the JASPER (Job Assets and Strengths Profiler) was mentioned

- Last week they introduced the ability for job canddiates to compare their application against others and see how they stack up - see Press Release. Job seekers can now tell what percentage of other applicants share similar qualificiations in terms of educational level and years of experience. This should also enhance more quality matches. 

- Also there is a quick online assessment you can take to see what type of personality you are, what jobs you are suited to and then direct links to the list of similar positions on their job board. See Discover Your Perfect Career

I was advised that career counselling, management consultancy or HR is where I belonged - PHEW - I thought I was going to have to look for a new job!

Corporate Guide to Blogging

Edelman the global PR company has just produced a very interesting report on blogging - including some great demographic data in terms of who is reading blogs and how often.

If you are thinking of adding a blog as part of building your personal brand you would do well to take a look at this first. Download it here.

Blogging is not the answer for everyone when thinking of building a web presence - if your target audience is Americans over 65 you might want to have a second think!

Big Companies Are Blogging

According to an Edelman study of the top Fortune 500 companies - 32% are blogging in some way or another - download the report here.

If you are planning to utilise blogging as part of raising your personal brand and have some target companies in mind that you might be interested in working for - check out who is blogging and who is not.

TV Appearance

Here is the link to my TV interview earlier this evening. Workopolis TV Click here. Take the timer forward to 12.45 to see my piece.

Connecting Your Employer to Your Brand

One of my personal brand strategist colleagues, Deb Dib, the Executive Power Coach, just posted a link on our strategist Yahoo group that made for some interesting reading.

"In The War for Talent, Good Companies Finish First" - is the title of a survey conducted by The Good Search - a retained search practice that delivers great talent to great companies that also happen to be good - (how is that for branding yourself in a niche!).

In the survey that looked at the potential benefits of leveraging corporate social responsibility in both recruiting and retaining talent they found that of the respondents;

• 96% would rather work at a company that aspires to be good
• 92% would be inclined to trust a good employer and would feel better about themselves for working at a good company
• 90% would feel happier working at a good company

However only 36% felt that they were currently working at a good employer

When I talk about the rise of personal branding, in particular with in corporations, and the need for forward thinking companies to consider this approach as part of talent acquisition and retention these sorts of figures are exactly why.

A key part of the personal brand foundation is connecting values to your work and life - that is what candidates are now seeking. The survey goes on to say that;

• 91% believe working for a good company serves as an extension of their personal branding as a good, ethical person
• 68% believe it would be detrimental to their careers to have a bad company on their resumes
• 57% believe that working at a bad company raises questions about whether they are a bad person.

Its up to individuals to determine their brand and then find companies that are on brand for them as employers.

Its up to companies to live up to their side of the bargain and walk the talk - they have to live their values too.

Apprentice - Week 3

I am really not enjoying this season of the Apprentice - the 'need' to put one team in 'Tent City' and then single them out for a guaranteed loss (at least for half the team) means their morale continues to go down and they will continue to look for scapegoats and reasons to blame others.

Meanwhile Team Kinetic are having the easiest time that I think any team have ever had on the show - lets hope there is some mixing up soon otherwise this show is going to continue to slide down the ratings.

Check out the first ever time someone has resigned at the Yahoo web site.

Michelle was not a great project manager - she had to be coerced by Trump to take the job and then basically ran it by vote on almost everything - she was too afraid to make decisions for fear of being the next to get the chop.

I admired the fact that she was prepared to stand up in the boardroom and resign, although I do not think she was strong enough with her reasons - the tent city thing was an insult to her and she should have said so more clearly Bottom line is that her team lost and the likelihood was she was going to be fired - so is resigning before you get fired better? Perhaps..

Appearing on Report on Business TV

This Tuesday 23rd I will be appearing on Workopolis TV - part of Report on Business TV - being interviewed about the use of personal branding in the corporate environment.

The show airs at 8 pm EST in Toronto and is repeated at 12.30 am and then on Sunday at 9.30 am - Click here for local channel listings across Canada