DON’T TRAP YOURSELF WITH NON-BELIEF

Reports indicate over 160,000 jobs lost nationally to date this year and a forecast by outplacement professionals, Challenger Gray and Christmas, declare a projected loss of over 180,000 tech jobs for 2009.  The question, “Will I be laid off?” is inevitable.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to know one way or the other?  Unfortunately, this is one time in your life when you simply can’t get the information you need to see what your future holds.  You can only make a “best guess.”   It is to no company’s best interest to let people know about layoffs before they actually occur.  So instead, we engage in wishful thinking; arranging reality to prove the outcome we want.  Some examples:

I can ask: How can you know?  You can’t ask your boss; by definition, managers can’t reveal what is not yet made public.  It is a breach of ethics and a cause for firing.  If they say anything, it will be a flat out denial. The work you and the team are doing still needs to be done until other arrangements are made.

It’s just a rumor: If you heard a rumor, for instance, of a 10% cutback in force, where did the rumor originate?  Companies often “leak” this information to soften the blow with the press and investors when the hammer falls.  If you heard the rumor, it is probably true.

I am safe because I survived the layoff. The first wave of layoffs left your job in tact; does that mean your job is safe?  Probably not.  If your team has been reduced significantly, you can expect to be laid off in the next wave.  Layoffs usually come in threes.  Companies typically stage layoffs giving as much as 60 days notice or severance and the expense is huge.  Conducting layoffs in stages is one way to manage the bottom line consequences of massif layoffs.

The company has never had a layoff so I feel safe. Every company has had layoffs, they just don’t always call them that.  Projects are canceled, reorganizations occur and functions are sent off shore. Sure you are often given time to find a new job within the company, but that typically works only sometimes in the soundest of business climates.  When there are project cuts throughout the corporation, it is doubtful you will find a new spot internally.  You weren’t laid off but you are out of a job.

My function is too critical to the company to drop me: No such thing.  While you are thinking logically, you don’t have all the information.  Layoffs are often instigated by the Board of Directors.  Their agenda and that of the CEO are very different from the rank and file.  They are concerned with shareholder value and equity.

Most “C” level executives and certainly the Board, focus on the bottom line AND the stock price.  The triage they do is simple; what is absolutely necessary to shore up and/or maintain the stock price.  Each project/department and product is vetted against rule one; will keeping this team in tact generate revenue and contribute to the bottom line right now?  If there is any doubt about the necessity of your project/product in that vein, you are vulnerable for a layoff.

If yours is a long range or research project, you are vulnerable.  If you are an evangelist or if you are working on projects that keep the company in the public’s eye but does not actively generate attributable revenue, your job is at risk.

I am friends with my boss, he won’t fire me:  Marching orders are marching orders.  While many executives have discretion over who will get a pink slip, business trumps friendship every time.  Do you honestly believe your boss will put her job on the line to save yours?

And the real error in this thinking is that just because your boss is friendly, doesn’t mean he is your friend.  An efficient work environment is lubricated with friendly behaviors.  A convivial work culture tends to be a productive one.

Don’t mistake that trip to your boss’s cabin with BFF.  In fact, if you really are friends, it is likely yours will be the first position to be cut so he won’t be accused of favoritism.  And don’t think for one minute that your boss whom you believe to be your friend will warn you if you are at risk.  She will only say what she is allowed to say; which is no one is in jeopardy of a layoff, or I haven’t heard one way or the other.

For advice on protecting your self from a layoff:  Can you protect yourself from unemployment?

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Are there Steps you can take to Avoid a layoff?

Layoffs and cuts back are forecast through out every US industry.  If one believes this view of the employment future, how should you prepare?  If you feel you are at risk, what can you do to manage the threat?

Middle Managers and Top Sales Executives are typically the first to go.  Their jobs are easily spread among others or disappeared completely.  And their job titles represent the most common in corporate America.  How do you protect yourself from being one of the many?  How do you make certain you can find another job?

How do you protect your job?

If decisions are made to cut the product or team, you have little recourse.  But there are steps to take to remove the bulls eye from your back:Your first defense against a layoff is to make absolutely certain you are doing your job to the best of your ability and you are exceeding corporate expectations.  Ask your manager what you can do better.  Then do it.

• Look for ways to save money in your department.  Demonstrate fiscal responsibility and help your employees do the same.  Let management know what you are doing and offer to help other departments do the same.
• Look around the company to discover vital tasks that need doing and which will contribute to the bottom line in either savings or new customer acquisition.
• Keep in mind your customers are having similar problems.  Propose ways to partner with them to prevent a crisis.
• Suggest ideas which are vital to improving the products or services the company sells at little or no cost.
• Work hard to demonstrate your concern for customer retention.  Sell your ideas on how better to service the customer base without spending more money.
• Communicate your efforts to other departments and become known within the corporation as the go-to person for mentoring and solutions critical to keeping the company on track.
• Take credit when you do any of the above and let management know you are vital to the corporate mission.
• Last, but not least, now is the time to network, network, network.  When the time comes, you will already have a leg up on the competiton.

It happened: Often you have no way to protect yourself from a layoff.  Here’s what you can do to make yourself employable even in a down market filled with many others after the same spot you hope to land.

• Ascertain what distinguishes you from all the other candidates who do what you do.  Lead with it as you approach opportunities.
• Determine the single highest priority hiring companies look for in a new hire in your position.  Define yourself as the embodiment of that priority.
• Line up your references to taut your abilities and experience in that area.
• Target companies smaller than the one you left and represent yourself as an expert who can not only do the job, but as someone who can train and cross train the department to weather the downturn in business.

Above all else, always appear confident. Remind yourself daily of your successes and remember it is the economy, not your abilities that caused your unemployment.  Self assured people always get top consideration for new opportunities regardless of the employment market.

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MY SOAP BOX THIS WEEK IS PERSONAL DIGITAL DIRT.

THE PROBLEM: Who among us has not been tempted to rant on-line about something we care deeply?  Politics and religion are tempting topics for your opinions; they are also exactly the topics where you can offend the most people.  And what about all those pictures of the drunken brawl after the game?  Well, guess what, with the newest tools, anyone can find out even the oldest dirt about your personal and business life.

Fact:  Prospective employers vet ‘suspects’ on-line prior to contact.  There is no law to prevent them from not contacting you because they found something you said or did to be at odds with their own views.  You will never know who did not contact you for a job.

And worse, if you are already in the interview cycle, it is a guarantee someone with whom you interview will vet you on-line.  If they see or read something unpalatable they can make a reason not to proceed with hiring.

THE SOLUTION: Personal digital dirt has no shelf life; it exists forever.  So, what can you do to manage your reputation on line?  How can you overcome these self made obstacles to create a professional brand?  How can you manage your professional brand on-line and keep dirt away from your digital door?

1. Stop creating dirt.  Keep your opinions off line, just don’t do it.  Not even once.
2. See what is out there.  Use the tools above and search on your name, phone number, aliases, first initial and last name and your full name with your middle initial.  Women, search your maiden name.
3. Contact every site that lists your dirt.  Do whatever is possible to have it and your account removed.
4. Use all the social networking sites you can find.  Create a wonderful and accurate profile of your background and professional life.  Use a professional head shot and maintain these profiles.
5. Create a blog, respond to questions on social networking sites and other blogs, and participate on forums including those for your hobbies.  Your objective is to create so much clean dirt that the bad dirt is forced much lower on the page.
6. Use Google Alerts on your name to monitor how the world sees your digital brand.

CLEAN-UP ON STEROIDS:  The über solution employs the notion of pushing your dirt as low as possible on search engine results.  Sign up for as many high profile social networking sites as you have the time to monitor.

Ziggs, a social networking site for professionals, misleads prospects with the promise to “Build a free professional profile and search for other professionals.”  Enticing as that is, their real value to the job seeker, passive or active, is that they are invested in helping professionals create an online brand.  While not specifically targeted to job seekers, it inevitably works as a tool for clever hiring authorities to find you through the very best digital footprint you can create.

How is it different from other social networking sites?  Ziggs is highly ranked with search engines and as such, your entry is almost guaranteed to come up high on any search for your name.  Sure, it takes Internet time for your original profile to appear, but if you are in a hurry, Ziggs offers a 48 hour presence for a few bucks.

The advantage to you is one of the first entries people see is one that sets the stage for you as a professional; one over which you have complete control.  That first impression may very well cancel out some of the less positive dirt available. Fill out the complete profile and people can see you as a well-rounded, exemplary citizen in the business world.  No Dirt.

There are the familiar groups to join, comments and discussions to use and many ways to search for contacts or companies.  And a truly stand-out feature is you can actually see, using a map feature, the locations of people who found you on Ziggs.  Why do you care?  If you sent your resume to Dallas and a red flag appears on your map on Dallas, you know someone is vetting you.  To add to the thrill, Ziggs will email you with every new flag and information on the key words used in the search for you. Mouse over the flag reveals useful data:

Ziggs Real-Time Search Alert
Search Terms: Rita Ashley Medford Oregon
Search(Engine): Ziggs
Visitor(Location):Bellevue, WA
Date: 11/18/2008
Time: 5:11:00 PM

Julia Bradley, Vice President of Ziggs Marketing, encourages professionals who want to stand out from others who share their name to purchase their own domain URL, a service Ziggs makes very easy.  If you want to look truly professional, you need your own named address such as Julia@juliabradeley.com.  Sage advice for the long term.

CLEAN THE PICTURE DIRT: Julia also recommends using as many as six photos on Ziggs that show you in your many professional guises.  Google supports image searches which can be damaging.  Your objective is to have  many good pictures show up first.  Because of Ziggs high search engine ranking, your Ziggs pictures just may push bad images further down the page. Check it out, Google your own name, then Google/image  Ziggs President, Tim DeMello, or Eve Maler which is a terrific example of why your hobbies count, for example.  Everything on her image page, including her book covers is impressive and relevant to any job search.

Do not underestimate the picture is worth a thousand words cliche.  Remember, you want to create and maintain a professional brand, not let your college buddies know you are still a wild and crazy guy or gal.  It is all about a professional brand and your career.

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Job Search Resources

If you are engaged in a serious job search, you have run into job search engines. They aggregate job descriptions from a variety of sources, some directly from the hiring company. They tend to duplicate one another, but they are all worth using for those exceptions.

My test for a Director of Development showed many jobs on The Ladders and other job boards that were also shown at the company web site for direct connections. I did notice many openings for companies where I know for a fact, there is a freeze on hiring.

If you use these job search engines, understand that not every company uses the same terminology for the same job. Use a variety of titles to round up the greatest selection of jobs you might want. Some of the sites will update you on new opportunities for your title choices.

simply hired is a template for most job search engines. The site aggregates results from major job websites, newspapers, company websites, associations and other online sources. Employers cannot post jobs. Site is strictly for job seekers. Users can search by occupation, job title or location.

indeed is the oldest of the group of job search engines.

Juju - A job search engine that sorts by job title and location

Jobs online - A job search engine that sorts by job title and location

Job Volume - A job search engine that sorts by job title and location. Includes Govt Jobs.

hound requires sign up but will send out opportunities.

Jobpier requires log in and user information.

My suggestion is to use more than one site to discover the direct path to the job since using any of the job boards just means you have more competition. A direct approach is always preferable and a referral is even better.

For more job search support, click on the left.

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THE DEATH OF THE JOB SEARCH ENGINE

The previously, almost cult-like job search resource, job search engines, just went mainstream. Business Week is now partnered with Simply Hired to provide, on the magazine’s site, instant access to job listings. While this is good news for Business Week, Simply Hired, job boards and recruiters, the extensive outreach to a large employment pool is not good news for candidates.

Those of you already familiar with job search engines appreciate their job aggregating nature as a fast way to discover employers. Many entries are not associated with job boards or recruiters and give you direct access to hiring companies; always the best approach for an effective job search.

With the partnering of Business Week and Simply Hired, the value of this tool has been compromised. Their press release tells the tale: “BusinessWeek attracts an audience of 4.9 million readers, who on average make almost $100,000 a year, mostly in professional and managerial positions. By integrating job content into the site, employers can reach this audience of highly qualified…candidates.”

Where once you had a cozy web site to browse for local job opportunities, you now have competition for those jobs based on 4.9 readers.

One of the more endearing features of Simply Hired has always been listings not associated with recruiters or job boards. Candidates could locate jobs with real contact information, find a referral from their network and pursue the opportunity in a first class, professional manner through direct contact. With global exposure, many companies with direct contact information will be inundated with responses forcing them to use job boards and recruiters as filters. And most executives and technology leaders know, Job Boards Don’t Work.

The first destructive wave to destroy the job search beach is while both new partners can boast about the number of listings and perhaps even the number of hits,the quality of the information has been rendered almost useless. The increased exposure (global), so dear to publications is exactly what the candidate does not need: significantly more competition for any one job.

The tsunami affect: Since all job search engines cull their data mostly from the same sources, Simply Hired’s exposure contaminates all these resources equally. The partnership between Business Week and Simply Hired is the death knell to job search engines as a resource for executives and technology leaders.

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Seems the job search engine world is exploding with new job search tools. And along with them, companies who provide SEO and other services to HR departments. For example: Optijob offers a solution for Internet recruiting and job marketing to companies. They advertise: “OptiJob applies cutting-edge search engine optimization - (SEO) technology to showcase your jobs individually, distinctly and uniquely, as separate listings on Google, Yahoo! and MSN. Candidates see your job listing as a four-line block of type including your company name on the search results they are shown. From your office to their computer, job marketing made easy. Internet recruiting just got personal.”

As long as companies are making it easier for you to find their jobs, why not use the search engines created to find them? In my previous blog about seven search engines I mention there is quite a bit of duplication on results. But the engines listed here specialize and may render different results. Let me know how they work for you.

Joes Jobs is all about software development openings. And lots of them from around the world.

37 signals has listings for web developers and designers, for the most part.

Creative has a site for about any creative type you can imagine and even allows users to post their portfolio. This is a sophisticated site with a variety of services.

If you would like more support with your job search, click on the left.

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Once you achieve the status of a $100,000+ job, how long you stay with an employer is very important. You must ascertain if a company is a good fit before you take the job. You need all the information you can get.

Just as it is important to monitor and protect your online reputation, it is also important to vet your prospective employer. If you feel strongly that you don’t want to work for people who have certain views or engage in certain activities, you can vet your prospective employer.

Use the sites listed on my blog about your reputation to discover your prospective employer’s online presence. Chances are, they are doing the same about you. Also, check out glass door for input from people who work or have worked at the company. Come to your own conclusions about who would make entries on glass door to determine how much weight to give the entries. Also notice the dates. One entry defamed a department of a large company but a new manager was brought in 18 months ago so the critique is no longer valid.

It is important to your career and well being to work for people with whom you feel comfortable. No amount of discovery is too much. Check out former employees using linked. Invite them to discuss their experience with the employer; ask what they liked and what they would like to see change. Don’t ask for dirt; that is unprofessional and not especially useful. Ask how you can succeed and about the culture, don’t ask for gossip.

For in depth job search support, click on the buttons on the left.

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Those of you who follow this blog know I advise extreme caution about anything you post anywhere on the Internet; that prospective employers may vet you prior to even an initial contact. This is practical and is not illegal or discriminatory since you are not yet in the running for a job.

Political, religious and any extreme point of view, reference to drunken orgies or worse are easily found. Let us say for example, I am founder of a small company with fragile funding. I need a CTO and a CFO who will fit the conservative culture in my company. If I discover someone I had considered courting to be involved with and commenting on anything of which I disapprove, I simply don’t contact them; and if they contact me, I don’t follow up.

Or I am interviewing and then research the individual. If I find something that alarms me, I remove the person from consideration saying I need someone with an area of expertise you don’t possess, or other acceptable but bogus reason. The end result is the same. I researched and discovered something about you on the Internet and you didn’t get the job.

Over 64% of the HR professionals polled said they vet people on the Internet. I believe the number is much higher because more than just the HR department is involved in vetting/interviewing prospective employees. I think I made my point. Anything you say on the Internet can make you vulnerable.

Want to do a reality check? Job Mob did an excellent job of listing sites that track your Internet activities. I borrowed the list here.  Visit their site for other good info.  Try random searches to see how the world sees you.

• RapLeaf - a website that scours the Internet to find information about a given person based on their email address. Sign up for free and tell Rapleaf about any email addresses you use. Within a few hours, RapLeaf will have results to show you. No longer as impressive as it used to be, the results about me were minimal after weeks of searching.
• Naymz - a “reputation network” that lets you create a profile and then invite people to vouch for you, earning you points and improving your “Repscore”. Once you sign up, use the Naymz Reputation Monitor as another method to see what the Web knows about you. A nice touch is that Naymz lets you see who has visited your profile, which might be handy in seeing which companies are interested in you.
• Wink - claiming to “find people”, Wink pulls in results from a number of sources including Google.
• Spokeo - another people search, this one covers dozens of websites.
• Whoisi - a people search over social media sites like Flickr. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to work too well- it couldn’t find any of my public social profiles.
• Usernamecheck - just what it says, this tool will check dozens of websites to see if your username is being used there. A good way to find out if someone is posing as you or just has the same name.
• socialmention - a search engine across social media. Use the ‘All’ option first. Annoyingly, putting your name in quotes doesn’t seem to improve the results, making this site almost useless right now.
• RSSmeme - a tool for following the public RSS feeds generated by your social profiles at sites like StumbleUpon or del.icio.us. See what people are saying about you (by searching your name in quotes) or check what you’re sharing publicly.
• Repcloud - a Facebook app that allows you to see what’s being said about yourself or anyone else.
• StartPR - an online reputation tracker that follows keywords and lets you manage the results with favorites, read/not read flagging and other handy features.
• pressflip - create searches and save them for updating over time. You can then ‘flip’ the results that aren’t relevant and pressflip will learn your preferences and improve future search results. For the learning to work well, you’ll need to come back often to check for new results, which is probably not worth the time.
• FaveBot - track your name or keyword across different types of information like blogs, news or even local events (based on Eventful.com) and follow FaveBot’s results via RSS feeds. As of this writing, there seems to be a problem with the site finding results although it has worked in the past.
• Swamii - a continuous search engine like FaveBot but more general in the types of information searched. Get results via email alerts.
• Trendrr - track a term or keyword across many sources, compare results (the most interesting feature) and even share them.
• AllTh.at - calling itself a “search agent”, AllTh.at saves searches and lets you follow via email or RSS as new results appear over. You can also choose which sites AllTh.at searches and even add your own, plus you can fine-tune your results with some filtering to remove irrelevant items.
• Yotify - create “scouts” that search for relevant information and notify you when they find it. Has some good features like the ability to include friends in your searching but the site is clunky and slow.
• PageTiki - a simple site for following web page updates via email or RSS, useful for watching a webpage that mentions you.
• ChangeDetection - track any webpage for changes and be notified when the page changes.
• WatchThatPage - another webpage watcher but one with many features like letting you decide what will be shown in alerts.
• TrackEngine - another site for tracking changes on the Internet, this one is feature-heavy but easy to use.
• Versionista - might be the king of following website changes. Versionista checks for updates hourly and will keep up to 5 versions of a page (paid users get more) while allowing you use the site to compare versions or to receive change notifications by email.
• FeedWhip - gets updates about any webpage via RSS or email.
• Notifixious - a handy service that you can use to keep updated about changes anywhere on the Internet and in the way you choose: email, RSS, even Yahoo Messenger, etc.
• Pingie - will send you an SMS whenever an RSS feed is updated (US-only for now).
• ZapTXT - does both of what Notifixious and Pingie do but with more features.
• UpdateScanner - “A FireFox extension (add-on) to monitor web pages for updates. Useful for websites that don’t provide Atom or RSS feeds.”
• Google Alerts - a very simple service that sends you an email whenever it discovers search results for the terms or keywords you chose, such as your name.
• Yahoo Alerts - like Google Alerts, but with many more types of alert to choose from. Also, alerts can be sent to Yahoo Messenger or even via SMS (US cell phones only).
• Windows Live Alerts - Microsoft’s alerts service, similar to Yahoo’s in features but based on their own search engine.
• Technorati Search - generate an RSS feed based on what people are saying about you in blogs.
• BlogPulse - search the blogosphere and follow the results via an RSS feed.
• Alerts.com - another free alerts service with even more features and kinds of alerts (including job alerts). Use their RSS Feed alert to follow sites that might have negative things to say about you and your work.
• TweetScan - set up alerts based on what people are saying on Twitter. Can also search over Twitter and Identi.ca (another micro-blogging site).
• Plurkerati - search across users of Plurk, another micro-blogging service like Twitter.
• TweetRush - “aims to provide estimated stats on Twitter usage over a period of time.” Another way to learn about someone via their Twitter usage.
• Twitter Search - search for a name on Twitter and subscribe to the results via RSS feed.
• TwitStat - search Twitter by user or keywords, and follow results via RSS.
• TweetBeep - get email alerts based on results from Twitter searches.
• Twitter Search Sentiment - an offshoot of Twitter Search, this tool tries to give you an idea of what people are talking about right now. Searching on your name (in quotes) will hopefully return a sentiment of wretched which means that no one’s talking about you.
• TweetTrak - track what’s being said about you on Twitter IN Twitter.
• Monitter - lets you track up to 3 terms in Twitter in parallel. Either subscribe to the results’ RSS feeds on watch the tracking live on the fly from the Monitter website. I like this one.
• 24oclocks - see what someone - e.g. you - has been doing in Twitter over a period time.
• Blogdigger - a search engine for blogs that lets you subscribe to an RSS feed of results.
• IceRocket - a search covering blogs, MySpace and a few other sources, I like how the results are ordered by date.
• Blogscope - another blog search engine.
• Technorati - a past champion search engine of the blogosphere, Technorati still indexes millions of blogs and also lets you create an RSS feed based on a search of your name, for example.
• TinEye - an image search engine, TinEye lets you upload an image and will tell you where it can be found on the Web. Hopefully nowhere if the image is one you’d like to wish away.
• Serph - a buzz tracker, use Serph to see what people are saying about you right now.
• Chatter - a blog comments search engine, follow results via RSS feed.
• Chatterguard - a paid service, Chatterguard watches social media sites for you and provides alerts and reports. Might be worth the price if you’re very active online and have lots of information to track and filter through.
• Yahoo Pipes - with this free service you can create an ego feed, a customized RSS feed that pulls in search results about you from many different sources.
• MonitorThis - this tool takes a keyword and generates searches of that keyword across 19 different search engines, with the results being generated as RSS feeds in one downloadable OPML file that you can import to your RSS feed reader.
• Rich Schefren’s Reputation Monitor - does the same thing as MonitorThis but some of the search sources are different. Also, Rich has included his business-oriented blog feed in the generated results, so remove it right away but keep the rest.
• Filtrbox - funnels and filters any sources of information you choose. Pick the Free option on signup.
• Trackur - an “Online Reputation Monitoring & Buzz Tracking Tool” created by Marketing Pilgrim and reputation guru Andy Beal, Trackur was initially aimed at companies worried about what consumers and competitors might be saying about them online. Trackur is a paid service but there’s a free 14-day trial which might be enough time to discover things that other tools couldn’t find.
• Attenalert - “a web service that allows you to find out who is talking about you, your brand, company or products on websites, in videos, the news and on blogs.” 7-day free trial. Like with Trackur, use the free trial to see if you can find any nuggets that the other (free) tools couldn’t.
• Distilled Online Reputation Monitor - this paid service lets you have a whole free month to test how well it can find information about you.
• ReputationDefender’s MyReputation service - a paid service (currently US$9.95/month) that generates a report of all information it can find about you online and gives you tips on how to react. Don’t be surprised if some of their tips try to get you to buy more of their paid services.
• ReputationHQ - another paid service that scours the Web for information on whatever you choose.
• BoardTracker - a search engine that will help you see if anyone’s said anything nasty about you in discussion forums. Many features.
• Big Boards - a forum search engine that covers international sites, it either has many results or none at all.
• BoardReader - a forum search engine with a very wide reach.
• Omgili - another forum search, this one with a full-featured advanced search. There’s even a Hebrew version.
• Yuku Find - yet another discussion forums search engine, it doesn’t work very well.
• Twing - this site also lets you find out what people are saying in forums.
• Linqia - a forums and “communities” search with a nice interface and useful filters, I wasn’t very impressed when it couldn’t find my name and adding quotes had no effect on the search results.
• DataPatrol - originally intended as a way to prevent identity theft, DataPatrol’s alerts and reports can be used to find information about you online. There’s currently a free 30-day trial offered, but the site is only available to UK residents for now.
• BackType - search through comments people - you? - have made on blogs. This is useful because many sites block search engines from indexing (taking into account) reader comments. You can search by commenter’s name like a potential employer would do, or by comment text e.g. to see if anyone has written about you in blog comments.
• Keotag - a site that makes it quick and easy to search blog post tags across many different search engines. Try searching on your full name in quotes and without quotes.
• Commentful - track responses to your comments on blogs.
• myComments - another way to follow responses to your comments, but requires blogs to be compatible and most aren’t.
• co.mments - track your blog comments via RSS feed or email alerts.
• coComment - yet another way to keep track of the conversations you’re having on blogs in one place. Their practical Firefox extension automatically records where you leave comments. Stay notified by responses via the Firefox extension, a Google Gadget, email alerts or RSS feeds. Plus, you can decide whether your RSS feeds should be public or private.

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Landing a six figure job is different from finding a job as an individual contributor. There is more competition and the unwritten rules for pursuing them are different. If you are an executive or technology professional looking for $100,000 jobs, you must be very clear on the job you want with a resume objective.

Your objective must be spot on to what a prospective employer needs. Your resume objective tells the employer the job you want in no uncertain terms. “To create and implement software development strategies and processes that result in products that add to the bottom line and increase shareholder value.”

Examples: “To continue my career as a regional sales manager” tells the employer what job you want, but not what you will do or how you will do it. Instead, these objectives make clear what you will do, how and the results. They compel the reader to learn more.

“Provide sales leadership and experience to build or revitalize a sales organization through the use of proven sales processes, coaching and mentoring: Build a robust pipeline of prospects.”

“An executive level sales position that will leverage my experience building and leading sales teams to grow revenue from $6 million to $60 million in three years.”

Many resume services encourage six figure income executives to omit the objective in favor of the summary. When you omit the objective, you omit a marketing opportunity that tells the reader why they are reading your resume.

Thus, a resume with a summary of technical accomplishments requires the reader to ask, “But what does he do?” If the objective includes: “Lead highly effective teams to create mainstream products from innovative technologies for customer facing applications,” the reader has a frame of reference for the summary.

And, “Build and lead development teams to reduce costs and complexity of technology solutions while delivering increased service levels and customer satisfaction,” peaks the reader’s curiosity to read more.

Experiment with several versions of your objective to highlight different aspects of your success. Select which one is appropriate for each job opportunity. $100,000+ jobs go to those who ask for them, specifically.

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Leaving the $100,000+ job requires finesse. Why? Because every single person in your organization will work in another company or know someone who works in a company you’d like to consider as a future employer. You want those people to be convinced you are a class act and not the least bit negative about your former employer; that you did not/will not spread harmful rumors about the company, products or colleagues.

People love to gossip and the more negative the gossip, the more quickly it is spread.

• Give only positive reasons for leaving, commenting on what you are going towards, not going away from.
• Stick to the story. Don’t discuss the “real reason” with your favorite colleagues. Human nature being what it is, that reason, the confidential one, will soon replace the “for publication” reason throughout the company and on the street.
• Don’t rant. When co-workers want to discuss their own dissatisfaction, mention only your good experiences and things you like about the company.

THE EXIT INTERVIEW:

Of importance, as mentioned by Lyndsay Swinton author of the blog, The Rest of Us, “…is a mental checklist to run through to remind you how to behave in the exit interview.

• Have I chosen to attend this interview? It’s not compulsory, so if you’ve decided to attend, do so with grace and dignity.
• Will anything change based on my comments? …
• Who will benefit from my honesty?…
• Who will be harmed by my honesty? Remember that bland answers are an option if you’re likely to get upset during the interview.
• Do I want to work for this employer again? Burnt bridges are difficult to repair.”

The possible list of exit interview questions is exhaustive. Be prepared for those which are most likely to trigger a negative or emotional response from you. It is imperative to keep a positive attitude.

The temptation to “let the employer have it” during the exit interview must be resisted in every case. There is nothing you can say that will change their behaviors or erase the reasons for which you are leaving.

While HR professionals honestly believe there is merit in conducting an in-depth exit interview, senior management (your peers) rarely views the actual interview as more than an indication of how you as a former employee will represent your time in service.

Remember too, that when casting aspersions on your soon to be former employer is an indictment of those who chose to stay. Tread lightly and avoid generalizations and a critique of the company as a decent employer.

Don’t be fooled by the questions that ask your opinions about what could be changed or improved. Companies know disgruntled former employees can be a liability and make recruiting and hiring other $100,000+ employees difficult. Thus, they show they care by asking your advice about how they can be a better company.

Chances are, they won’t make any changes and they don’t really care. They ask these questions primarily to make you feel you are listened to and that you might make a difference thereby diffusing some of your anger towards them. Don’t take the bait.

Let all your comments be neutral, innocuous and positive. Remember, every person who reads your exit interview is a prospective reference for your next two jobs. Be on your best behavior and manage your personal PR with finesse. Your next two $100,000+ jobs may depend on it.
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