Your personal year in review
December 29, 2006
So what did you accomplish this year? Did you grow? Maybe you don’t think you’ve improved at all. Carve some time out this week and do the following:
- What new skills do you have?
- Is the quality of your work better?
- Look at your writing style — have you become better in terms of clarity and accuracy and conveying your thoughts?
- How are your people skills? Was it a rocky year or did you build confidence among your team?
- What do your superiors think of your performance?
- Don’t be stupid
- Don’t say anything stupid
- Don’t dress stupid
- Don’t do anything stupid
- Don’t bring uninvited stupid people
- Be likeable. This is the first prerequisite. Without a friendly relationship, there is no need to go further.
- Be reliable. The company, the product, the service, AND you, must be “best,” and “there when needed.”
- The customer considers you an expert in your field. To be referable, you must have an expertise that breeds customer confidence.
- They trust you. The customer is CERTAIN that you will do everything in the referred party’s best interest, like you have with theirs.
- You have a track record of performance. You have already done the same thing with the customer and they’re comfortable that you can repeat the performance.
- They consider you valuable – a resource, not a salesman.
- Many other companies do it
- IM presents increased security risks
- Client contracts and/or security assessments prohibiting use of IM due to security threats and privacy policies
- Increased costs of supporting this technology
- Stories about stupid coworkers
- Advice how to get along with bad coworkers
- Spreading faith to coworkers
- Using astrology to determine your compatibility with coworkers
- Articles about coworker murders
- DO know what type of job you are after before you start to write.
- DO keep it clean. No one wants to read a cluttered mess of 8pt, single space type.
- DO keep it focused on the type of career you want to follow.
- DO summarize your experiences upfront. Include a short summary of your diverse professional experiences (or industries your worked in if that’s relevant).
- DO include for each job: company name, city/state, mm/yy-mm/yy, your job title(s). For each job, highlight your most significant accomplishments. (e.g. “Led project that resulted in ____”. “Developed promotion that raised share of wallet __% for that quarter.” “Automated a manual process that resulted in significant manpower and cost savings.”)
- DO try to tell a story. Somehow, your past experiences have led you to where you are today. Try to get that point across. If you worked in market research initially, then that helped build the foundation for your direct marketing experience.
- DO highlight if you managed teams or had staff reporting to you.
- DON’T include references. Save them until you are asked for them.
- DON’T have more than three pages. That’s already too long, but might be necessary to tell your story.
- DON’T include: personal hobbies, reasons for leaving, irrelevant job details.
- DON’T be boring. Sure it’s hard, but think of the person reading your resume. You want to get him/her excited to talk to you.
Don’t be afraid to criticize yourself. It’s important in order to create your goals for the new year.
Good luck!
-Roland
Don’t screw up at the company Christmas/Holiday party
December 12, 2006
eWeek so kindly published a list of stupid things you should not do at your company’s Christmas holiday party: “10 Office Holiday Party Landmines to Avoid.” eWeek even put together a cute slide show to help illustrate their top ten list.
I can distill their essay into the following quick guidelines:
Look, common sense should prevail. It’s not a time to get drunk and cut loose in front of your bosses and colleagues. Be smart, be sober, be polite. Let some other clown make a fool of herself/himself.
Have fun!
Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional. His observations can be found at Chaos365.com and AdMadMan.com.
©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.
Article: Becoming referable is a matter of earning, not asking.
October 31, 2006
Whether used to get your new job or a new client, professional references are more important than ever. Coworkers and clients move on to new positions and it is possible for you to loose touch with them. I’ve also noticed more people (including myself) do not provide written references any longer — partly out of concern for not being in control of how the information is used, and partly because some corporate policies do not permit written and oral referrals.
You might want to read this article by Jeffrey Gitomer: “Becoming referable is a matter of earning, not asking.”
(According to Jeffrey) Here are the elements that breed proactive referrals:
Definitely check it out the full article.
-Roland
Instant Messaging in the office
September 19, 2006
A few months ago I wrote an article “Instant Messaging when you can’t install software” that has come in handy for me several times since.
About two years ago, our company invested in having a business version of AOL Instant Messenger available to the staff. (Very forward thinking.) The IT department installed AIM on PC for anyone that requested it.
Probably 40% of our staff use IM regularly to communicate internally and with vendors, clients and other agencies we work with. Certainly some people chat with family or friends, but I don’t believe that’s abused. Certainly better than having that employee chatting on the phone.
We were suprised to get a notice last week that the corporate policy on IM was being changed. Employees are no longer allowed to chat with non-employees. Reasons cited:
What’s particularly suprising is that Instant Messaging took years to gain respect as a new, useful tool for collaboration and communication. Now it’s becoming too risky for companies to manage.
-Roland
Coworker humor
September 17, 2006
I did a random search using the keyword “coworkers”. I was suprised by the variety of links that appear in the top results:
Here are a few links you may enjoy:
StupidCoworkers.com — Stories
iWorkWithFools.com — Stories
AnnoyingCoworker.com — Send anonymous emails
Resume writing tips
August 10, 2006
I recently talked to a friend about resume writing. We struggled over the what to do when you have 20 years of diverse experience at 6 or more different places.
Here are some resume writing tips we agreed make sense:
Get a few people you trust to review your resume and be prepared for criticism. A different perspective will help you cut out unnecessary info.
One final tip — DON’T LIE! It has become more common for managers and CEOs to lose their job because they embellished experience or education.
Good luck job hunting!
-Roland
Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional who hates to revise his resume. His observations can be found at Chaos365.com and AdMadMan.com.
©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.
Article: 10 reasons to avoid getting a job
August 3, 2006
I came across an interesting article by Steve Pavlina: “10 reasons you should do everything in your power to avoid getting a job.”
Independance takes guts and in many ways is more stressful and harder. But the rewards are vast in many ways. Check it out.
-Roland
Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional who sold his soul to corporations long ago. His observations can be found at Chaos365.com and AdMadMan.com.
©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.
