The Story

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First Impressions

3 August, 2009 in The Story | No comments

Personal Branding, I know corporate branding, Coca-cola specialist in FMCG, IBM – corporate computer solutions, Disney – family entertainment. Colleen Chan – Business Analyst, brand? Hmmm….

I began with my story, the number of connections I had made and how many groups I had joined. Being a statistician the story was based on the number of 2nd and 3rd degree connections, the locations and the industries. I was pretty proud of my networking efforts for somebody who had never networked before with my 60, 1st degree connections.

One day while I was surfing my network I found Barrack Obama’s profile then realised he was 3rd degrees away from me. I thought that was pretty exciting so I include this in my story. My exhilaration was let down at the conference when I heard that Barrack has many, many, many 1st degree connections so is not that tough to achieve but now I am only 2nd degrees away.

During this time my mother was rushed to the emergency rooms so no time to write. I start thinking about why I should win the prize. The campaign ad was let The Face sex-up your brand. Sex-up a business analyst, how are they going to achieve that. Business analysts are known as one of the most boring people, they look at their spreadsheets all day. Make me sexy, right.

I had found a role in LinkedIn jobs but could not apply as it was not feasible. I had all the experience and knowledge but believed my profile did not show my full potential to accomplish this role. How could a personal brand help me reach my goal? I just could not understand how they could brand me, other than with a soldering iron and a logo on my forehead. I have more questions than answers while I was thinking about what to write. Though, I did remember that I would be posting discussions on all my group boards if I won the prize.

It was the day before JobCAMP. I had to pick up my nephew from school and take him to my parents place. Ok, I still have time to get back and finish my words. When we get there, the little one comes running out expecting his mother and there are tears. I pick him up and sit on the lounge. The older one points to the ground and says the little one has done a wee wee. I get up, look down at my jeans and there is a stream of wee going down my leg! Can’t leave now, I have to wait until my sister gets back. Mum has recovered but not to look after a crying child. Eventually I sent my story in late that night. I mean, who works 9 to 5, I certainly hadn’t for many years.

JobCAMP, camping in a tent means casual and it does say casual but I was going to be networking, so smart casual. Smart casual is too hard so a suit, much easier.

I’m ready for JobCAMP. The only thing was to make sure I get there on time. Registration time was at 7am for 7.30am start. That means my alarm has to go off at 5am! I am just not a morning person at all and I have been unemployed so there is no rush in the mornings. Just hope that alarm screams at me in the morning.

 

Next post in The Story -> JobCamp

 

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Being Proactive

27 July, 2009 in The Story | No comments

I had been in LinkedIn for about a month and was getting very disheartened by it all. I had dug into the deep, dark recesses of my brain to remember names from the past. Oh, I remember that person, they were really nice. What was their last name? How do I spell it? I had maxed out my connections at 60.

My career consultant suggests I start being active in my discussion groups. Discussion groups? That means I have to write, I’m a numbers person, I don’t write. I couldn’t even do my own resume and that is about me. How was I going to participate in discussion groups? So I start scouring my groups for a topic I could write about. I search and search, I find topics from statistics, IT processes to personal development and so many acronyms but nothing that I could write about. I know I was just avoiding the writing.

I finally find a topic I could understand ‘Non – IT Projects’. I am a non-IT BA so I’ll put up a comment. I started my comment by saying this was the first ever comment I had posted on a discussion board, I think I was doing the ‘please be kind’. I did not answer the question, I answered the question relating to my previous role which was not project driven. Over excitement about the topic.

Great, the first comment I post has made me look silly! Oh well, its all out there in ether land and nobody has said I didn’t answer the question. Phew! Then somebody answers my comment privately, they actually took notice of what I had to say and had sent me an invitation to join their network! Wow, my first outside network connection. We continued the discussion offline and agreed that we agreed.

I recently wrote to this connection asking why they had sent me the invitation even though I had not answered the question. The reasoning was my “jump in and splash approach” in a “normative behaviour surrounding it”. The approach was similar to themselves, whom they hadn’t thought about for 20 years. They had also told me they had been following along (the campaign) as a lurker. Every connect can bring a smile to your face whether just as a connection or in general conversation.

Elbow on table, head on hand, I scour some more. There in the corner advertising box is a conference ‘JobCamp – Getting Australia Working’, Win Personal Branding Campaign. Let’s look at the speakers, the only speaker I knew was Iggy Pintado, author of the Connection Generation, we had more than 10 shared connections, through colleagues in my previous role but we did not know each other. Conferences, expensive, price $495 but due to the Global Financial Crisis nominal contribution. Ok, this sounds good, This will be a good chance to meet with a shared connection, allow me to network with more people and be able to create my own discussion for my groups if I can win the prize.

I have registered for the conference, now I have to put something together to try and win the prize. Personal branding, I had been hearing about it since I had been out of work but what was it and what could I say to win the prize? I had to write again! What was I going to write about!!??

 

Next post in The Story -> First Impressions

 

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The Story Begins

15 July, 2009 in The Story | 8 comments

I was enjoying my job at Lenovo the work was complex and I could use my modelling skills in Excel. I knew my time was coming up as the hyperion system was going online in the following quarter. I was sent over to Malaysia for 3 weeks, the guys over there were really nice I was able to train them and also enjoy the shopping as well. :-) Though I was sick for the whole 3 weeks and could not enjoy the food as much as I would have liked to :-( .

When I came back, it was nice to have a break. I had been working 60 – 70 hours a week trying to get these models out and was happy to let my brain have a rest and had not had a holiday in a long time. I don’t usually take notice of what is really happening in the economy, all I knew was we were having a mining boom and China would keep the Australian economy buoyant.

Then the GFC. I started looking for work but by that stage the market had already decided to shut down. Summer came along, nothing happens in the summer, everybody is on holidays and the feedback from recruiters now is that it was one of the quietest summer’s they have ever seen. My resume was being presented to prospective employees but that is as far as it got.

I received a break when I got through to the interview stage with a Telco company. I got excellent feedback from my recruiter, Louise Pope, and from the interviewees but realised at the end of the interview that I was not going to be offered the job. The line was “we used the agent as only a backup as we have done our own advertising internally, you will hear if you get a second interview”. I knew then that was the end of that prospect.

My recruitrer ask how all other prospects had gone so I told her my story, she told me that I should be working and it was because my resume was not “cutting it“ when it got to the managers stage. So she introduced me to a career consultant, Kim Seeling Smith, who had already seen my resume due to previous applications to the agency and her response was that my resume was “ok”. She re-did my resume and introduced me to LinkedIn, which was at the end of March.

I had never social networked before, I did not see not see the benefits of joining any social network of any sort. I am a very private person and did not want to loose my privacy into the public domain. I had not even joined Facebook even at the request of many friends. Joining LinkedIn would mean I would have to tell everybody what I did for a crust. My friends at work did not know what I did or even my education. I am not one to brag. :roll:

So I join LinkedIn. I only put a summary of my role at Lenovo and I include all my other jobs. I start inviting people who I thought knew my work and me, I was omitting people who knew me, those who knew my work and those who had been at the end of many conference calls. I invited my Mr.P and Mr.VP but then withdrew the invitations as I had not met them in person eventhough I had received many emails and pings directly from them, I don’t know what I was thinking. And even sent a couple of I don’t knows as LinkedIn said only to accept inviations from people you know.

One of my ex-managers from Lenovo did not want to join LinkedIn to give me a recommendation. I thought that only managers could give you recommendations. My career consultant came to the rescue, she told me I had to connect with everybody I knew and recommendations were only a bonus. I also had to load everything on my profile but I didn’t want everybody to know about me. She told me that everything was in the public domain anyway so I had nothing to fear. I was reluctant but agreed with her.

So off I went connecting to everybody I knew. I wrote back to my ex-Mr.P and Mr.VP apologising for withdrawal as I just didn’t know how it worked. I recieved sincere replies from both of them and invitations to their networks. I appreciated their genuine responses. And sent back invitations to the people I sent ”don’t knows” and they kindly accepted.  It is amazing to see the support network you have out there without knowing it. Just having the small network I had, made me feel that I was not alone in my quest to find my dream job.

The next thing was to get my recommendations. So I looked at how LinkedIn had setup the recommendations. I thought this is pretty easy, just choose from the list, maximum 50, and see what you get back. I received a great response from my ex-colleagues at Lenovo and the recommendations were so nice, I did not know my work had received the acknowledgment it had. :-)

My profile is complete, I have connected to as many people as I can without having their email addresses, have recommendations and have started joining groups to connect to more people with the same interest and backgrounds. But what now?

 

Next post in The Story ->  Being Proactive

 

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