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The Search

2 May, 2010 in The Story | 19 comments

Over the past months you have been reading about my journey through social networking, social media and creating an Online Presence to find that job. But how did I get that job using this medium that everybody is talking about, social networking. Is there anything to all this hype?  Believe the hype, social networking does work. I was a non-believer but now a true believer of social networking. This is my story of finding that job, which includes the “real world crap” as quoted in the thread, My Personal Brand, by my friend, Ken. Be warned, some of it does get ugly but in the real world, nothing is ever as pretty as it seems :roll: .

There I was unemployed with GFC in full flight. I had no choice but to social network as I had been told it was the only way to find work through these tough economic times.  I have to tell everybody I know that I am looking for work so people can help me. I join LinkedIn, The Story Begins… and win my personal brand advertisement at JobCAMP.  

I received one direct interview, with a recruitment agency, from the ad. This was extremely disappointing especially after all the hype at JobCAMP. The recruiter, who interviewed me was “let go” a week after, due to the GFC. He has since called and met with me again with another opportunity but did not eventuate.

The response could have been due to a couple of factors. The ad placement, it was great that I got such a high profile spot in the newspaper and the job boards but don’t believe they were the right places as these are places where job seekers are looking and not potential employees. I was looking for work, I believe placement in the Business section of the newspaper or the Executive Style section of the website would have been a better choice. An Australian connection, living overseas, had trouble recalling the ad then the posting of My Personal Brand he recalled it but thought it had been misplaced and ignored it :-( . The other reason of course was that we were in the middle of the GFC.

It was really quiet for weeks. I was forced to start blogging, I had my hands tired behind my back, I had no choice as there was nothing else to do. It was a real struggle starting and continuing the blog during this time. I was also talking to a lot of recruiters who were not allowed to use social networks to find candidates or even knew what a blog was, like me at the beginning. Very disheartening, this is when I nearly stopped blogging, Becoming a Blogger.

I keep on doing what I learnt a JobCAMP, keep networking. So I do. We were told that “every connection is a good connection”.  I start surfing my network, reaching out to people I believe maybe able to help me in my quest. Though at the time I was getting confused at who I was surfing for? Connections to understand social media in more depth, other social networkers, connections who share many, many of my connections, recruiters and more recruiters, and accepting every invitation that was sent to me.

After networking for the past 12 months, I believe that this statement is only true for some and not for others. I do not believe that every connection I have made has brought me the benefits that social networking has to bring. Only unwanted invitations onto networks that have no association with being a business analyst or related work, or recruiters that do not live in Australia or those who do not want to learn from my experiences, which is always disappointing and many hanger-on-er’s.

I received many interviews with recruiters who in turn did not return calls after the interview. Even though during the interview they were very enthusiastic about meeting and future prospects they had for me. One recruitment company had very stringent rules with the handling of their candidates. I ended up with a recruiter from the public sector. She knew it was not right but she did try to help me and did go to at least one interview, though I did get a rant out of it :oops: . In general, the recruiters were very good, they are trying to do the best they can do in very hard situations and some I developed a great rapport with.

So many consulting companies that I lost count, some short term, some long term contracts and even some full time work but…

  1. the firm would not get the contract so I would not get the job
  2. I am a data analytics BA not an IT BA, so many times…
  3. worked too much corporate, and one basically said I would a princess and would not know how to work in a small firm, maybe a little bit true, only sometimes, but is expected in corporate life, :-?  and,
  4. many that did not suit me.

I also received opportunities from some corporates, through them searching their networks. One had done all reference checks before they contacted me with an interview. Went to the interview, but you know when you step into an interview and you know and they know. Forty minute interview, with an answer at the 30min mark but the HR person had not looked at my blog at all, even though the other that reached out to me looked at my profile :-| .

Before my journey began, I was hitting the job boards. Everything and anything, one of these was a role I did not have enough experience but my resume was passed onto another recruiter in this very large recruiting agency. This recruiter became one of my best leads. I never met her and we spoke on a very regular basis, I did eventually meet with one of her colleagues but the opportunity did not eventuate. Every opportunity she had, was passed onto me, some did not suit but she sent me to interviews.

One of these was an interview with a very large Japanese company. They did not give me any notice. The recruiter rang in the late afternoon, with a one paragraph JD and 2 interviews the next day. The first with the C-Level and the next with the hiring manager in 2 suburbs, not close by.

I was not prepared. After the interviews, I believe the hiring manger liked me but the C-level did not. I did not have my left-of-centre personality out there, I was very conservative and also very nervous. Though, after 2½ hrs of interviews, I was very excited about the opportunity. But in the end, I did not receive any feedback. The recruiter rang so many times to reach the HR people but no response at all. That is just so poor.

So how do I get their attention? I know it was not me in the interviews. My first thought was to use my network to try and reach out to this C-level. I received some feedback from my network but it didn’t work. I have a blog, I can show them what I can do. Operations Dashboard for a Matrix Organisation was born, my first theoretical data analytics post.

The response from my data analytics posts has been well received and continues to appear in search engines. With these analytics posts, I received offers to speak overseas, in Asia and the US, at conferences and training programs. They would list out the people that had previously spoken at these events and I was extremely flattered that they would consider me in that league. I would write back to these people and received an offer from one of these events. It did put a smile on my face, in times when I would say was one of my low moments.

My recruiter was very pleased that I had gone to the effort to write the post and said no other candidate she had come across had written a post for an opportunity. She had tried to contact the HR person but no response, she contacted the C-level directly, and again no response.

Time lapses, I had an interview with a consulting company, they really wanted to hire me but did not have a role for me. The consultant said I would not have liked the culture of the Japanese company, the left-of-centre in me, so no great loss but it certainly didn’t feel like it at the time.

Sigh… :cry:

  

Next post in The Story -> Landing that Job

 

 

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Becoming a Blogger

25 January, 2010 in The Story | 2 comments

Me? A Blogger? I didn’t read blogs, why would anybody want to read what is coming out of my head? Several months later I am still blogging and people are enjoying what I write about whether the story, data analytics or even my rants. Hopefully, I can keep this up and the sentences do not stop flowing out of my head. Does this surprise me? Very much so. This person who does not like words has strung together nearly 20 posts and has a small following which I never thought I would have, ever, so thank you again for all of your support. I must admit though, it has not been smooth sailing through this part of the journey but very rewarding.

I had problems from the very beginning with social media and I needed a good kick on the bum to get myself motivated to start (Online Presence). I had struggled with social networking and I had been an extremely private person. Blogging meant that I would be losing more of my privacy to the public domain. I would have to be really out there to promote my blog so eventually that job will be mine.

I had read a few blogs and most of the posts were less than 500 words. I can’t fit what I want to say in 500 words or less, what can I tell people? I write The Story Begins and I make it fit on an A4 size, 500 odd words. That was my benchmark, fit on an A4 size and it won’t be too long, those are the rules.

I was ready to post in all my groups and my networks. I was nervous. I timidly post onto my networks then to my groups. I had installed a flag counter on the website, I had my 4 friends in Australia and my connection from the US who knew about the site. I was looking at the flag counter and saying to myself, “This is going to depress me watching these flags not move”. As I login to delete the script, the flags start moving with additional flags! My first post and people are hitting my site, unbelievable! Though the data from the flag counter does not compare to the data coming from GA but from my understanding different analytics packs calculate data differently.

You have to post every week, I had been told. Every week! I don’t have that much to say, let alone write! I post the next 2 parts of my story in a very feverish state. Then I decide to build my own website, (Online Presence) it takes 3 weeks, which means something I suppose in social media circles, a long time between postings. This is my first posting in more than 6 weeks :-? .

The next posting is JobCAMP, I also post my first rant, After Sales Service…. I only post details of the rant on my wall in FB, my one friend knew how I felt about hanging on the phone forever. I had not posted in the LI network, it was sitting there on my blog so I could get it off my chest. I receive my first comment for a rant on the blog then the comment from Sheryar, I could not believe my little rant had stirred someone to write such a conscientious comment. I was extremely flattered.

I’ve reached my 500 words, that’s it, no more words :lol: .

The next couple of posts, not much was happening, I was losing my engaged audience :cry: then The Campaign. I post in my groups, titled, “Social Networking and the faux pas of a Beginner”. I had just finished my postings and the visitors to my LI profile and my blog were incredible. My blog visits had surpassed any other posting by more than 10 fold, an overwhelming response. Yeah, I had 2 before, now I have 20 :lol: .   When I woke in the morning, my mailbox was bombarded with comments from groups. I had never seen so many! :-)

Since blogging, I have received online and offline comments giving me a pat on the back, saying I was brave for telling my story. This is all really nice but not what I am blogging for. I am not brave, I only assume everybody else would feel the same way if they were in my position. I just want to increase my chances of finding that job, if people can get a smile out of my story then all the better ;-) . I have also received notes from others who said that I had encouraged them to get their act together. This is always heartening. But all comments I receive, online or offline,  make it all worthwhile as I have been able to reach out to someone who I would not have touched before blogging :-D .

Where are the rough waters? Blog is running smoothly and I have all this attention. The Campaign ends with “But what now?”. I had arrived at another “but what now” moment, not only in the story but also in real life. I was not enjoying blogging at all. Communicatons had stopped from the first posting. I struggled from then on as I just did not know what I was doing. I was not enjoying the self promoting and I was not enjoying writing about myself as said before I had been an extremely private person.

I reached out because of my confusion as to what to do with the blog. Advice was given and I decided to stop blogging. I did not feel I had the passion. I started to write my final post, introduction, draft of the body and conclusion when I received one of these heartening notes. Which made me stop and think again, always dangerous :lol: . There is a reason why I am blogging, to increase my profile so I can find that job. I cannot stop, I haven’t found that job!

When I first started blogging, I did the Wikipedia lookup,

The personal blog, an ongoing diary or commentary by an individual, is the traditional, most common blog. Personal bloggers usually take pride in their blog posts, even if their blog is never read.

I wanted to take pride of my blog. I was not happy with some of my postings. I could see that I was not holding my new visitors so I went back and rewrote the one’s I had feverishly posted including the first one, more than 500 words now . After another 3 week hiatus, I wrote Online Presence and managed to keep the following I had achieved with the previous posting.

I have this sense of renewed energy and passion for my blog. I start writing my data analytics posts, same response but a different group people reading my posts. I said I was not going to rant but I am and another different crowd. With this new energy, my blog and I are now in harmony and my readership continues to grow with every posting. The blog is also recieving new visitors via direct entries, don’t know where these people are coming from as I only promote my blog in the LI network. I also decided that I was not going to post every week and not have a limit on my words as I would prefer to produce quality over quantity. Why don’t you subscribe to the blog using the above FeedBurner just enter your email addresss so you don’t miss out on any posts :-) .

The blog has three channels to increase my profile and find that job. I now call myself a blogger and even have a business card noting that I blog :-) . I have received leads and many more leads since I started posting data analytics on the blog. I am really, really enjoying reaching out to people and knowing people are enjoying my blog. I am now at the stage of my story where I am today, a business analyst and blogger, still looking for that job. I know there will be more stories to tell of my journey and hopefully, soon, I will be posting the day I got that job ;-) .

 

Next post in The Story -> The Search 

 

   

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Our Temperamental Computers

17 November, 2009 in Rant | 23 comments

You know the feeling, you are staring at the computer and it won’t do what you want it to do. You want to pick the monitor up, shake it and say “Wake up to yourself. You are supposed to make my life easier!”

After my experience with Customer Service Experience Part 2, I was ready to get onto the web site to load my diagrams onto my post, Operations Dashboard for a Matrix Organisation, I needed to change them quickly as I did not believe the ones on the post were correct. I was already having problems with the yellow in diagram 3 but diagram 6 was fine the yellow was perfect. I load the new diagrams up and the yellow has turned into a dirty green! It was yellow, it is yellow in power point, it is yellow when I change to GIF file but when I load it up it is dirty green! Why? :-(

After fidgeting around a bit, I look up support forum, it says delete these files under /include/js. I am a bit wary of deleting files from the server, don’t know what I’m doing. So I delete some files, website still works, ok, load diagrams, still dirty green! I go and delete all the files and you know what is going to happen now, I lost my website after not having for the past 36 hours, just all this script :-x . Luckily for me there is an upgrade on the server so all I have to do is patch my wordpress, phew! Ok, it has to work now. Nope. Still dirty green. Defrag and clean my computer. Five hours later (yeah, hadn’t done it for a while), still dirty green. Ok, I’ll try and save under another directory, it’s finally yellow. YEAH! But not the same tone as diagram 2 and all the diagrams have changed size :-( . Who cares, I’ve had it.

The next day I have one more go at it and for the first time diagram 3 has the same tone yellow as diagram 2 but diagram 6 could not get there. But why? I had not done anything different, it just decided to behave for diagram 3, only.

Why do these things happen? I mean I had been working on my website for 4 months and then all of a sudden it decides to have a complex problem. Diagram 3 which has never been the right tone of yellow is now perfect and not for diagram 6 which was the right tone before all of this! 

Do I have all this bad feng shui around me at the moment that it is also affecting my computer? Or was I just being too fussy about my yellow?

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Online Presence

15 October, 2009 in The Story | 6 comments

LinkedIn is the first social network I joined but not the only one I have joined since then. My public profile is not only LinkedIn, it is what a person finds when they do a search on your name, this is what I learnt at JobCAMP.

I do a Google and Yahoo search on my name. There are so many Colleen Chan’s but nothing on me. The only Colleen Chan in Sydney ran in the City to Surf fun run. Anybody who knows me would laugh as I do not even know the word exercise! Colleen Chan the business analyst does not have an online presence.

At JobCAMP we were taught that if we hit our own links enough then eventually increase your ranking during the searches. But I am nowhere, the only online profile I have is my LinkedIn. I now realise my LinkedIn profile will never rank above any other Colleen Chan’s in LinkedIn in the Google search as my public profile URL is colleenchan and Google searches on ‘colleen chan’ so does not even recognise me as Colleen Chan but Yahoo does, I’m nowhere in Bing.

We were told to create profiles in all social networks and make sure that we create a public URL as it is all free to join. So many social networks out there that it is hard to know where to start. I had read that XXXXX is “to connect with people you do know but don’t want to know”, (probably why they have lost 50% of their market share in the past year). Facebook is “to connect with people you do know and do want to know” and Twitter is “to connect with people you don’t know but do want to know”. I join Facebook and Twitter since then I have also joined Naymz and Plaxo.

Since joining all these networks, I must say I am not a big fan of Twitter, it is all too much for me, can’t keep up. I watch all the tweets and the thousands of followers people have. I am usually a quiet person, I don’t have that much to say, some may disagree ;-) , and these Twitterer’s tweet so much, so much to say. The only tweets you see from me are when I am posting on my blog. My little voice gets lost in the thousands of tweets already out there. It is a different way of reaching out to people by giving their connections short assiduous pulses of information. Many have grown their brand successfully using Twitter as part of their marketing strategy. I am sure there are many people that I do and probably need to know out there but it is just not for me :???: .

Facebook is a totally different kettle of fish. You must realise the only social network I have seen is LinkedIn which is very straight and no bright lights flashing at you when you press buttons. I start connecting to people I already know who are on FB as these are the people telling me I have been missing out. Yes, I have been hidden from the world of social networking, I did not know that if somebody wrote on your wall that a) Everybody on your network sees and that b) you are suppose to reply via comment and not by writing on your wall again, :???: , it’s like ignoring a conversation. Sorry friends.

I start getting these notifications and every time I start something, I have to send to a group of friends. I mean some of this stuff is really stupid, more fool me I answer everything and send to my friends as well. But eventually I realise my friends don’t want to see all this stuff and I see a skip button amongst all the flashing lights. During this time somebody sends me a kiss. So I think which friend of mine is playing silly games with me? When I get through the flashing lights, the name that appears is laughable. Ignore. I go to my wall 2 days later and there it is, I have inadvertently joined a dating site and the application had posted it automatically! :oops: . Mind you it was not the only time I had been fooled by spam, I had also gone into depth about my friends to a new connection as the spam said this person is new so introduce your friends. Duh! I basically ignore everything now, I don’t know where I might end up. FarmVille?!

Yes, FB is different and I am still trying to get the hang of it. So much advice about who you should be connecting to in this network. I am still struggling, as I have been told every connection is a good connection, but FB is for friends so where do I stop accepting invitations on networks. Is there not a space where I can keep private? Or does social networking mean that I have to be open to everybody? I want a job, I know having a lot of friends is good but a lot of friends verses a group of friends you know personally? I would prefer a group of friends I know personally and I am sure most people would feel the same way. :-)

I open a WordPress.com account but do nothing with the account for nearly 8 weeks. I don’t even know why I opened the account as I do not know how to write, I did poorly in English at school and had not written anything creative since then but it is to increase my online presence. I struggle for weeks. Do I want to be the 1% of internet users that becomes a content creator? I have nothing to write about, I needed a tag line and I needed a theme. I ran past my ideas across many people but I did not seem to be getting any traction. Everybody was telling me I had to write about data analytics but I can’t write and then trying to put my numbers into words is basically impossible, I needed someone to write my resume, I had to win a competition to get my personal brand done. How can I write about numbers and who wants to know about data analytics?

What I did receive was a good swift kick on the backside by one of my connections who had answered one of my group discussions during the campaign. And for that same person to agree that writing my story would be a good to start for my blog and move onto data analytics when I get the confidence in my writing. All I needed was somebody to agree with me and I was ready to go. So here I am communicating to you through my blog another way of reaching out to people.

I want to look at the numbers from my blog but to do this I have been told to use Google analytics but to do this I need to build my own website. Sigh… This is after I had started blogging. I had already been told I had the skills to do it but I didn’t know where to start. I put up a discussion in a couple of my IT groups to get help. The feedback I receive is very encouraging with new connections happy to help me through my process.

I start building this website, it takes me 3 weeks to get it together. In those weeks I was looking at words and acronyms I had never seen before, extreme headaches and my chiropractor said my body had not been that stressed since I had been out of work. More accounts, usernames and passwords and lots and lots of learning. I now know how to setup my own website and understand all the different layers I have to control and still learning about new layers :-| .

Building my own website for my blog increased my online presence without even knowing it. My blog did not rank in the first few pages before I built my website but once the blog was running from my own site, the blog is ranking on page 1 in Yahoo and sometime makes page 2 in Google. The numbers? I have been told by connections to ignore the numbers as 1. all cool websites do not get massive traffic and 2. I should not be worried about the numbers but an engaged audience. But I do look at the numbers, I can’t help myself. My traffic against benchmarks in GA show the blog is doing above average and I do have an engaged audience. So thank you all for your support. :-)

My online presence is now there. My LinkedIn profile has made No.1 using Yahoo search and my “Check with Chan” advertisement has made No.1 using Google search. With all the other social networks I have been able to make more than 2 of my links to be on page 1 using both search engines. This is due to the blog without the blog my rankings would not be up there.

digitally-distinct_badge120pxDigitally Distinct You are digitally distinct!
This is the nirvana of online identity. A search of your name yields lots of results about you, and most, if not all, reinforce your unique personal brand.

          

           

             

            

There are many social networks to join and many different ways to communicate with your connections. Some of my social networks do not even get touched as they are all linked some how to the handful of accounts that I use regularly. Creating my online presence has been an important part of my personal brand, people can do a search on my name and find me easily. Now all I am waiting for are my long lost friends to find me :lol: .

 

Next post in The Story -> Becoming a Blogger

 

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