Bo’s posterous

Today was a desk day! I started early following up and ended the day following through.

I now have a total of 20 LinkedIn recommendations and some people have promised to send more. I've extracted them from LinkedIn and incorporated them into http://kudos.bolora.com

I followed up with people I met yesterday and connected with some that I knew already.

I also did the very necessary work of registering for unemployment at the Texas Workforce Commission site (http://www.twc.state.tx.us/) which I think its built by BearingPoint, how ironic. To find your state's  unemployment agency go to http://jobsearch.about.com/od/unemployment/a/unemploymentoff.htm

Tomorrow will be a wrap up day. I plan to do something different this time around. In the past I've become so obsessed with finding a job that I didn't even take a day off. This time around I think it is wise to be completely off the job hunt during the weekends. 

I will use tomorrow to do a few things:

1. Clean up the home office
2. Put together a budget for the next month
3. Work on Twitter to strengthen my following (#followfriday - I'll post some info on that tomorrow morning)
4. Call recruiter to get a game plan for next week.

I have made new contacts, rekindled old contacts, started on a few things and now its time to follow-up and follow-through.

Follow-up:

1. Did you make any new contacts, collect business cards, etc.?
I'm going through the people I've met this week and I'm going to take the time to Google them, get to know about them and find them on LinkedIn, FaceBook etc to connect with them. I'll also write them a personal email recapping my understanding of what it is they do and briefly go over what I do so I can ask if they know anyone that might help me.

2. Did you reconnect with old friends?
Those who I've met this week that I hadn't seen in a while I'm going to invest some time to reconnect with them. If they are already social media friends I will go to their profiles and comment letting them know it was a pleasure to meet them again.

3. Do you have a recruiter helping you?
If you don't have a recruiter, it is important to find one. Find a recruiter that specializes in your industry. I'm going to follow-up with my recruiter. Having a recruiter is a joint venture. Their effectiveness relies on your follow-up with them. Over the year I've found that shooting resumes at jobs posted on the internet is such a waste of time.  Find a job and let your recruiter know and let them work their network of contacts to give you better access to that job.

Follow-through:

1. Online resume:
I'm still making tweaks to my resume site. Today is a day to follow-through and finish these tweaks. I have a few more recommendations that came in so need to add those to http://kudos.bolora.com. I also jusr realized that I haven't configured that domain name.

2. Job inventory:
I need to take inventory of the jobs I've summited for and send those to my recruiter so she doesn't double any efforts. Before Day 1 of the "Job Hunt" I riffled through a bunch of job posts and applied. (that was an ill-advised move)

3. Questionnaires:
I have some questionnaires my recruiter wants filled out so she can understand more about my needs.  The quicker she has this info the better.

4. Unemployment:
I should have filled for unemployment on Day 1!!!!!! This is probably one of the most important follow-trough items of the day.  Its not much money but some money is better than none.  The last few times I've been laid off I was extremely stupid about this. I let my pride get in the way refusing to lower myself and take unemployment.  The I realized that it has nothing to do with that.  We actually pay for unemployment in everyone of our checks, so we better use that privilege while we have it!

Well, time to get to work on all of these things. I have more networking opportunities this afternoon.

It was a long day! Made progress in getting recommendations, made some good connections and ran into some old friends.
 
Tomorrow I need to really think of how to define my ideal job. I need to research job titles, salaries and pick the top 10 companies I would want to work for. All that may take me a couple of days.
 
Good night.
 
P.S. Oh yeah, I need to write emails to everyone I met today and get them on LinkedIn.

I finished my work on LinkedIn, I wrote over 15 recommendations and so far received three more and updated http://kudos.bolora.com

Next on my agenda for today is networking. First will be Bestica's Happy Hour at Champs. Bestica is a recruiting agency that specializes on User Experience jobs. After that I will head over to NSIDE's April Mixer at Changos in Leon Springs. NSIDE is a high end San Antonio magazine.

Networking 101 checklist:

1. Dress for Success - You have to dress well at networking events. First impressions are everything. If you dress like a slob, then people that don't know you will think that.  It's also important to know where you are going and how people will dress. You don't want to overdress either so do your homework.

2. Business Cards -  If you are looking for a job, keep your card simple.  Get the glossy white pre-cut sheets, they make nice looking clean and simple cards. On the card, keep your information short and sweet and also put a paragraph that describes your 5 second elevator pitch. I also keep my cards in my right pocket and everyone else's in the left pocket. Keeping them separated keeps you from fumbling for your cards.  For women, keep your cards in an outside purse pocket while putting the ones you collect in the purse.

3. Name Tags - When going to a network meeting there are a couple of things you should consider regarding your name tag:

a. How you write your name: I see a lot of people writing their full name, sometimes the company name or even their job title.  You should only write your first name AS BIG AS POSSIBLE so people can easily read it and identify it.  If you write your last name, it takes away from how big you can write your first name. If you put your company or job title people may judge whether they want to meet you before they even talk to you.

b. Where you place the sticker on yourself: It is important that you place your name tag on the right side. This puts your name tag out front when you outstretch your right arm to shake hands.

4. Working the room - When you meet someone, don't launch into what you do and that your looking for a job. Take an interest in the person that you meet.  You DON'T have to trade cards with EVERYONE in the room but the people you do meet, get to know them. Ask about their business and what challenges they have. Invite them into asking you what you do. Ask questions like, "so do you know anyone else here?" Get them to introduce you to their circle of friends.

Here is a sample of my card and name tag:

   

Click here to download:

The_Job_Hunt_-_Day_2_-_Network.zip (7 KB)

Well, I have to get going!

This morning I'm focusing on references & recommendations.

While I was talking to a recruiter yesterday she mentioned references and the idea of http://kudos.bolora.com came to my mind.  I used the LinkedIn recommendations as a starting point and that made me realize that I should spend this morning writing recommendations and asking people to write them for me.

I watched a seminar given by Glenn Dietzel and he is REALLY big on testimonials and recommendations to build credibility. He spent a good portion of his talk showing videos of people recommending him. I think in this "Job Hunt" its just as important. Prospective employers need to know what impression we have left throughout our career.

So if you know me on Linked In and have worked with me in the past, I'll be getting to you sometime this morning!

Day one of my job hunt is almost over and I feel like I made good progress. I sent back my work laptop and did my final expenses. I still have to make some tweaks to my http://resume.bolora.com
 
I thought of adding a kudos page to my resume site. I took all the LinkedIn recommendations and put them on a page. That would be a cool mashup idea for a blog widget! Anyway, that exercise made me realize that there are a lot of people that could give me recommendations! So that's where I will begin my day tomorrow, rifling through my LinkedIn contacts and asking for recommendations.
 
Now I'm ending my day with a conversation with my good friend Bob Hotard at the Cool Cafe. A little coffee shop on Bulverde Rd just south of Evans Rd in north central San Antonio.
 
I figured that it would be good to end the day in a relaxing note with good conversation, reflection and a smoothie.
 
I'll go back home and tend to non-job-hunting tasks and let my mind rest.

I packed up the work laptop, ready to ship it. Drove to FedEx, attached the label I printed at home.
 
Then it hit me: I did NOT export and save my bookmarks! Oh no! I had a treasure of handy places!
 
Oh well, if you have to return your laptop after getting laid off, don't forget to get your bookmarks!

Well, today is my first day out in the job hunt. I decided to keep an account of my journey using this blog.
 
My first step was to strengthen my resume by opening up the samples area and adding an virtual "interview with Bo." The samples are still password protected but the I'd and password are displayed next to the link.
 
I've also created second level domains to my www.bolora.com domain so that it will be easy to refer to all my social media accounts when talking to someone. So for example, you can go to twitter.bolora.com or facebook.bolora.com, etc.
 
I debated wether I wanted business cards or not but finally decided on a very simple design. Name, phone, hotmail email and www.bolora.com. I also added a quick 10 second elevator pitch witch is the same that is on my twitter bio.
 
I've also been taking the time to go through my LinkedIn contacts and started to send messages to them informing them of my job hunting status. I don't think it is enough to just update my status on all the social media accounts. As a result of that I have several phone calls to make today.
 
Well, enough for now, please feel free to make comments.