Don’t stop me if you’ve already heard this. It’s all about how I got hired — three times. And maybe it’ll work for you.

In my senior year in college (as a journalism major), one of my classmates was interning at a small weekly newspaper. She came begging one day, because she was responsible for filling the pages with content — any content — and wouldn’t be choosy about what it was.

Several of us pitched in, dashed off some stories, features, columns (I wrote one poking fun at the governor and lieutenant governor — really easy targets) — whatever we could think of. They were all published (desperation breeds insanity), and she was off the hook.

A few weeks later, she came back to class and handed me a letter sent to the newspaper from the Lt. Governor’s office. Gulp!

It turns out that this was one politician with a good sense of humor, and he wanted to congratulate me for writing such a great column. And he wrote it on official, gold-embossed stationery.

After graduation, when my job-hunt finally led to an interview, the hiring manager opened my portfolio of clips and looked at the top one — a letter of congratulations from the lieutenant governor on official stationery. And guess who ended up getting the job? That was job #1.

I worked there for several years, learned a lot, made a lot of friends. And guess what — I heard from one of them about a better position at another company. He arranged an interview, and guess who ended up getting the job? That was job #2.

So for several years, I worked, learned, friended, and guess what? (Is this getting boring for you?) A former colleague told me about an opening for a better job at his new company. Applied, interviewed, got the job.

OK, so I was really lucky, no question. But it wasn’t all about luck — it was actually all about networking. Colleagues and friends recommended me, and I recommended them. The network you build starting out grows and grows, and opportunities grow with them. At least I think so.

And why am I telling you this now? Because it’s the holiday season, and there’s probably no better time to network and renew relationships.

Does holiday networking make sense to you, or should that wait until next year, when you’re back on the job-hunting clock?

Who hates progress? Your company, of course! And just about every other company, too. Here’s how I know this:

When CD drives first became available on PCs, many companies refused to buy them — concerned that employees would become less productive (listening to music), and what practical purpose could a CD serve, anyway? Internet connections — same thing. Playground stuff.

So does this sound a lot like (some) companies don’t trust their trusted employees? That’s nothing, though. I used to work at a company where the managers were required to walk around at 9 am to verify that every employee was in place, and at 5:15 p.m. a security guard started walking around, flicking off the overhead lights. I really miss those days (sigh!).

What were they thinking? For one thing, it was clear that micromanagement was ruling their employee strategy. If you were sitting at your desk from 9 to 5 every day with no distractions, then your superiors could be sure you were doing a good job. Or were you?

On the flip side, I worked for a company that had totally flexible hours and days of work. There were days for scheduling meetings, and days (and nights) for straight-on work, no meetings. Success was measured by outcomes — if you and your team delivered, you were successful. Issues were expected to crop up as part of the project, and were tackled without any high drama.

Now if this isn’t what your workplace is like, and it probably isn’t, there’s a lot of room for change. One possibility is to work out a small team pilot program to tackle one or two projects in a different way. It may help if you’re able to provide your manager with ongoing written status updates — it’ll make it easier for your manger to manage upwards. Beyond that, you have to build your own program with your own rules.

But be confident, as I am, that the workplace of tomorrow will look nothing like the workplace of yesterday. And wouldn’t you prefer to be building, rather than maintaining?

What’s your workplace like? And what would you like it be?

photo by wili hybrid

Humor me for a minute. Let’s say:

a) we’re able to see the beginning of the end of the recession (you promised you wouldn’t laugh). Now let’s say

b) you work for a company which has had to tighten its belt over the past year or so — laying people off, freezing hiring, freezing pay raises and bonuses, freezing promotions.

Does any part of this sound familiar to you? OK, next let’s do some algebra: a+b=c, where “c” equals you wanting to be doing something other than what you’re currently doing. Is “c” a mathematical possibility for you?

It certainly is for a lot of people, and a Wall Street Journal article raised this same question — from the other perspective, of course. What can businesses do to keep their best people (that’s you!) from leaving once there are new opportunities available? The article points out that many companies weeded out their “weaker players” during the hard times. Now they’re concerned about losing the survivors.

And they should be (concerned)! Historically, it’s not unusual for top performers in any company to jump ship sooner, rather than later, as the job climate shifts back to (almost) normal. They see the opportunities sooner and clearer — that’s why they’re the top performers.

OK, but maybe you’re not a risk-taker, and you’re not ready to do anything just yet. But what will happen when you see more movement — both in your company, and others as well? Will you start getting itchy to move? What will it take to push you over the edge?

And what would it take to make you stay where you are?

Poll Update: We asked “What would keep you in your current job?” Results were evenly split between a raise and a promotion. Nobody mentioned company loyalty, and there was one vote for “Nothing on this earth”.

photo by Sam Judson

First, and really encouraging — several people I know who have been job-hunting have been landing interviews lately. Hopeful for these folks, hopeful sign for the economy.

But the question of how to “ace” an interview always comes up, especially because there are so many types of interviews and interviewers. There’s a lot of good interview advice available, but let’s start with some important, but easy things you can do:

1. Prep, prep, prep. You really need to know everything about the company that you’re interviewing with — who they are, what they do, how they do it. Anything you can’t easily find out, consider that a question you should pop at the interviewer.

2. Defend without being defensive. If there’s anything in your resume that’s at all out of the ordinary, be prepared to talk about it. Maybe it’s a question about being laid off, or a question a big project you said you coordinated. Again, prep, prep, prep.

3. Consider the opportunity. The questions (from a good interviewer, at least) will be designed to expose your strengths or weaknesses — what have you been doing since the layoffs, other than job-hunting? Did the big project overwhelm you? Your answers will say something about how motivated you are, and your body language (as you digest and answer the question) will say a lot more about attitude.

A while back, after being caught up in some massive layoffs in the tech industry, I was in a second round of interviews with an interesting tech company. As we finished up, the interviewer told me something which stuck with me. He said that — unlike most of the interviews he had been conducting with folks who had been laid off — there was no tension, bad body language, no deer-caught-in-headlights feeling in the room. He said it felt like a couple of people just sitting there, talking normally, and it made him feel very comfortable (not a bad thing in an interview).

4. Leave an impression. Usually I hear that you’re supposed to get the interviewer to talk as much as possible during an interview, which makes sense up to a point. Yes, you want to get a better feel for the job, the manager, the company, and yes, you want the interviewer to feel as comfortable as possible (who doesn’t feel comfortable talking about one’s self?) But the key is still to leaving an impression (hopefully positive).

If you don’t make the hiring manager understand who you are and how you’re different from all the other applicants, then you’ve likely missed your chance to get the job.

Really — do you want to hang your identity on a label that somebody slapped on your back when you weren’t looking? If you do, here are some of the common traits attributed to Gen Y:

• trend-conscious
• Idealistic, optimistic, and flexible
• Socially responsible; particularly concerned about the environment
• Very comfortable with technology; like to multi-task
• Have a hunger for feedback and rewards

Likewise, for Gen X, you’ll see none of those characteristics. Instead, substitute:

• Cynical,
• Media savvy
• Individualistic and self-reliant
• grew up during economic downturn
• work ethic

So let’s dump the term “generation” — just for a minute. Let’s say instead that you’ve been out of school for 2 years. OK, do you have that picture?

Now, let’s think 12 years out of school. What’s changed? Do you still frequent Taco Bell for your dinner? Do you still make the same mistakes on the job, and off the job?

All right, leap through time another 10 or 20 years.
Do you have a longer view of careers, family, politics, work ethic, important technology vs. gadgets?

I’m betting you do, and that it has continued to change and mature you, and will continue to do so. I’m also betting that this difference in maturity levels is what causes generational friction. Sometimes, you want to learn from other people’s mistakes, and not repeat them. And sometimes you want to make your own mistakes.

I say again — Gen Y doesn’t exist. People do exist at a different level of maturity, people who have learned different things, perhaps, from others’ mistakes. Perhaps from yours.

You can agree with me if you wish. But if you disagree, you run the risk that I’ll decide that you don’t exist, either.

Tell me off, if you think I’m wrong.

Photo by Ha-wee

P.S. Speaking of levels of maturity, I was fascinated by some major trending topics on Twitter this past weekend — #balloonboy and #Sue Sylvester (look it up!) as well as #bostonisbetter. Doesn’t this sound like “normal” times?

Sharing some Twitter conversations (in my Twitter alias — ExperienceLive) with resume
experts from around the country lately has been illuminating for me, since the topic of what makes or unmakes a great resume is like a bad traffic accident — you just can’t turn away.

Some of the “controversial” resume advice that I saw:

• one-page vs. two-page resumes (it depends)
• functional vs. chronological resume (it depends)
• objective vs. personal brand statement (it depends)
• not enough vs. too much information (it depends)
• hard skills vs. soft skills (both)
• keywords (yes)
• expertise, not responsibilities (yes)
• love of iguanas (no — please, no!)

A few things are pretty clear — there’s a lot of confusion and a lot of differing opinions out there about resumes, how they should look, what should be included or excluded. How do I know this, personally?

True story — I met with some members of a respected outplacement firm a while back, and they analyzed and helped me revise my own resume. Here’s the kicker, though. After the first meeting with one analyst, I revised my resume exactly as she suggested.

The next day, I met with a second analyst, who also recommended that I revise a number of items. Fascinating, since I showed him the version with the changes I had made based on the first analyst’s advice. More fascinating, since many of his recommendations involved deleting or changing some of the items suggested by analyst #1. (Note: afterwards, I went back to my original resume — sometimes you just have to trust yourself!)

OK, aside from the question of who is really an expert, here’s an alternate question: how much do you really know about good resume writing? After a lot of conversations about resumes and other things, I’ve concluded that most people — regardless of the amount of career experience — know more about Vampires than about resumes. And, despite its lack of depth in career guidance, you’re probably far more interested in seeing a new vampire movie (Vampire’s Assistant opens next weekend) than a webinar on resume writing.

What about you, where do you get your resume advice from? Career experts or Vampires?

[Vampire Poll update -- friends and experts tied for sources of resume advice. Twitter came in next, and Vampires did score 1 vote (let us know how you did with a Vampire-approved resume, OK?)]

photo by wonderferret

Anybody else ever lose their brand? Did it hurt?

We lost our Twitter brand temporarily, thanks to some twhackers who made many people’s avatars disappear, to be replaced by the default l’il tweety bird. Not the worst thing, but our ExperienceLive symbol is pretty distinctive, and we’re proud of it (not to mention all the great info that gets tweeted every day — check it out!), and want it back.

In a greater sense, though, brands — whether corporate or personal — have become pretty important in our marketing-driven society. So what, you say? What it means for you is that without your own personal brand, you could easily get passed over for a job or a promotion.

Or not. I’ve spoken with many recruiters over time, and they all say the same thing — they’re looking for someone who
stands out from the crowd, not the play-it-safe, non-descript candidate. They’re looking for somebody with a real brand.

I’m not telling you to make things up, and I’m not advocating that you present a shallow marketing image. If you don’t think you need to sell yourself as somebody unique, somebody extraordinary, who can make a difference, then go ahead — tell me I’m wrong! But you better have a good counter-argument ready for me if you do.

On a somewhat related note, congratulations to Jenna, a former contributor to this blog, who has just landed a new job at a new company with the title all marketing people secretly covet — she’s going to become the Director of Buzz. Yes!