Photo by Luca Venturi Oslo

I’ve been in business as Design Resumes for a long time. I’ve lived in Wausau, Wisconsin even longer. But until Sunday, for many people in Wausau, I was invisible.

Now for those of you who read this blog regularly or know me from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or the many blogs I visit and comment on, I am anything but invisible! But when the story ran in in the Wausau Daily Herald and dominated both the front and the back page, I became visible in my own hometown.

All time records

Sunday set an all time record for this blog and Monday, I booked 5 new clients and answered 5 more email inquiries. The first new client came in last night and she is a nontraditional student at one of the local colleges. When she mentioned was going to have her resume written, the head of the learning center asked who she was going to see.

My new client replied that she was going to Design Resumes to see me and the other individual asked, “oh, is she the one on the cover of the newspaper?” When my client said yes, this person replied, “we cut out the article so we can post  it and recommend that our students consider using her services.”

Funny thing is, I have taught resume seminars at this college for 9 years and written resumes for both former students and management! Still, to most of the college and the surrounding community, I was invisible.

In the last year, my business expanded nationally and even globally with a strong reach via this blog and my social media presence. I can share job seeker success stories from clients throughout the United States and the world. My clients in Greece are now in new positions in Barcelona. But I was still invisible to most people here in Wausau.

Invisible job seekers

Job seekers are often invisible too. Despite a strong blog presence, people who didn’t use social media or Google didn’t see me. Many job seekers, even those who chose to have a professional write their resume and it overflowed with accomplishments and keywords, still stay invisible!

Why? They are assuming that they are visible when they use the only the online job boards to apply for positions. Unlike my invisibility caused more by people who didn’t know Wausau had a professional resume writer because they never Googled, these job seekers are hidden in the sheer volume of resumes sent to employers. They had an outstanding resume, perhaps, but no one could see it.

How to become visible

Job seekers who found me previously often came from Google and from referrals or networking contacts. A job seeker needs to commandeer their networks to increase their visibility. How?

• Start by building a network before you need it. Harvey MacKay in his popular book, Dig your well before you are thirsty, advocates:

A network replaces the weakness of the individual with the strength of the group. The idea of the group is to benefit members who have the same race, religion, gender preferences, ethnic background, business, trade and professional interests, economic interests, or personal interests. They are the basic building blocks of any networking system.

• If you think you need to wait until you need a network, you will not be able to successfully build one quickly. But if you have waited too long, you can still gain ground by making an effort to network correctly. MacKay also says:

A network can make you look good. To keep your network up and running, freshen up each entry at least once every six months.

• Work your way into a company through the back door, find out who you know either in the company, or who you know who knows someone in the company. This could be a college alumni, your next door neighbor, your fellow board member in an organization, or your hunting buddy. You don’t know if you don’t ask.
• When you find that answer, it is time to schedule an informational interview. Contact your desired individual and offer to buy lunch or coffee. Your goal is to gather information. You should always have your resume with you but it is not your goal to hand off your resume in the informational interview. If the individual is too busy to meet with you or on the other side of the country, ask if you can schedule a 10 to 15 minute phone conversation. If you get a yes, keep your word when you make the call, plan ahead what you will say so you can be clear what you are asking. Tell them you appreciate their time and if they have any leads for you, please  let you know. Send them a thank you (hand-written is a nice touch).
• Armed with your new information, make the contact in the company and get your resume to that person, letting them know that John Smith suggested that you might be a great solution for the issues that the company is facing. Be sure you ask John Smith for permission to use his name before you do this.

Before you know it, you will be celebrating your successful job search and you will no longer be fighting invisibility. Invisibility is never fun. But the good thing, is that it can be removed and when you remove that invisibility cloak, your talents and accomplishments will take you to the next level in your career.

Photo by Rhys Alton

Yesterday Gee Backhouse made a comment about finding that my posts apply to her life in many ways even though she is not looking for a job or planning to change careers. She has already done that. Gee is, as she says, a goldsmith and adventurer in France who moved from the UK and a prior career in Information Technology to launch a new career.

The Adventurer Within —I became a goldsmith by deciding to live a life of adventure; to risk the safely familiar in favour being involved in something that inspired me. With an open mind I looked out for opportunities, tried new things and made mistakes. I applied myself to finding a way of living a life that truly engaged me.

I love Gee’s work. It is funny though because I don’t wear any jewelry anymore. I was always getting my jewelry caught in things or covered with dirt and just ended up putting it away. My phone is my watch and I rarely wear necklaces. But I still appreciate them and keep track of things like Gee’s work because I know I am the exception rather than the rule. Other women and many men do appreciate jewelry.

What if I don’t need to read about job search?

I know that not everyone is looking for a job or wants to change their career. But especially in today’s economy, almost everyone knows some one who is struggling with keeping their job or someone who lost their job or someone who has hated their job but doesn’t know how to move on.

If you are reading this and know someone who needs to know there can be a light at the end of the tunnel and could use some direction and help getting into either the career of their directions or finding stepping stones to get there, then you share what I write with them.

I could never write just a resume writing blog or job search blog with step-by-step directions on how to get a new job. I have to weave my own philosophy and viewpoints into it. Gee seems to find that valuable and I hope you do too. I find that attitude is a huge difference maker in whether you succeed in life or not.

What blogs do I read?

The blogs I read are not necessarily ones that help me with my business or are in my field. I read plenty of other career industry professionals blogs too, don’t get me wrong. But I also read people with attitudes that inspire me and move me to action. If I help one person do that with my words here, I have done my job. If someone shares my words with someone who needs my services as a resume writer and we find that job seeker or career changer a position they love and enjoy, it is a winning proposition.

How do we stay connected and help others?

A winning proposition is those people who like what I say enough to get updates by e-mail. They can perhaps share my post easily with that job seeker or career changer in their lives. Or perhaps they just need a pick-me-up to keep going in their own field. If you are thinking that would be great, just enter your e-mail in the gold box at the top right column and don’t forget to click the link in the confirming e-mail. I’d appreciate that!

There already is a light at the end of the tunnel but not everyone sees it. You can help guide them by sharing what you learn with others.

Photo by Jeff Kubina

I would guess that there are some people who just don’t know why a blogger would put a search engine on their own blog, isn’t Google good enough?

Look over there on the right. See my search button? Just in case you missed it, it looks like this:

This might shock you but I actually use my own search button quite a bit. I use it when I am looking for posts that tie in with what I am writing. I don’t just connect with my own posts, I certainly link to other bloggers and sources too. If I want to reference something I wrote before though, I use my own search engine and look for a topic. See the Google link above? I used the Search button to see what I wrote about Google before and then linked to one of the posts.

Why is there a search box on this blog?

If a client asks me a question, I use the search engine to find the link to the post that answers it. When I was at the career fair at Rasmussen College last week, I told the job seekers I helped with resume reviews that they could search through my blog for information on topics they might like to understand better.

Perhaps you wanted to know if I talk about LinkedIn and how to use it in a job search. You could search for LinkedIn and get these results:

• Getting in the door: Using LinkedIn
• LinkedIn Q&A
• Fatal Errors or LinkedIn Interaction?
• My Journey with LinkedIn

Sometimes you have to search older posts. To do that, just use the navigation on the bottom of the search selection page (older posts) (newer posts). I might reference a topic in newer posts but not go into detail like the posts above but it is still a smaller pool than a search on Google would generate!

On my blog, you could search for:

• Online Application information
• Accomplishment-based resumes
• LinkedIn (as above)
• When Depression takes over
• Where is the economy going

And lots more…

So that’s it, friends, most blogs have a search box somewhere, you now know why!

Here’s your assignment. If you have a topic that the search box doesn’t cover here, leave it in the comments. I like writing about what you want to know about job search, career management, social media in the search, and other things that relate to finding the career of your dreams. As always, I just welcome feedback and comments in general even if you don’t feel like doing your assignment!

Photo by Rosaura Ochoa

Every day I read outstanding, inspiring blogs by talented bloggers who leave no easy options to share their posts. Part of the magic of blogging is the ability to share what you read with others in your network. When a post is too hard to share or you didn’t see it come by in Twitter or Facebook, you probably won’t share it.

Tweetmeme

Tweetmeme was the first share tool I used on this blog. See the nice little button? When you press the bottom part, it tweets the post out and if you have already done it, it turns to Tweeted on your computer.

Useful for easy Retweets (RT) of your blog posts on Twitter. A blogger can learn who has retweeted the post and expand your network if you wish.  I like the counting function of many of the RT plug-ins.

Topsy

Topsy

When I saw Topsy on Jim Connolly’s blog, I talked to him to learn how it works. Topsy measures how many times a post is Tweeted like Tweetmeme but it also lets you know when you are reading a Top 1K or Top 5K post.

The analytics are a little more detailed and it rewards bloggers for reaching certain levels of being shared depending on how many other popular posts are shared on the same day. New gadgets intrigue me!

Digg Digg

Digg Digg

I had been even more intrigued by Digg-Digg when I saw it on Danny Brown’s blog. I love the way it floats down the page and gives the reader multiple options to share. I had Kim  Woodbridge add it to my blog. I used Topsy as the tweet sharing option.

You can configure Digg Digg with multiple options. Kim set it up the same as Danny’s blog initially. I traded out Tweetmeme for Topsy later and reconfigured it several times. Since I am concerned about speed, I removed it after a testing period.

Sexy Bookmarks

You can find Sexy Bookmarks here too.

Like Digg-Digg, this interactive plug-in lets you share using many different social media tools. The little icons pop up and down as you select one to share. There are so many options you could configure but giving your readers too many options may confuse them and create clutter.

The Sexy Bookmarks plug-in looks like this:

We have become used to the EASY button and when we have to work too hard, we don’t do it.

If you are thinking about blogging, as a job seeker or professional, one of the first steps is decide how to make it easy for others to share your posts. You pick the gadget you like best. But make sure you make it easy to let others share your writing.

Make it easy!

The fun thing about all of these “gadgets” is that the developers provide them free. Donations are welcome for most plug-ins through their developers but all of these are free to use and try!

If you click on the graphics here, I linked them to the sites that will give you more information. Twitter released its own plug-in for retweeting using Twitter.

Choose what works best for you but use something to make it easy to share.

What do you think?