3FE: Lock The Job - Can I Really Use LinkedIn To Get A Job?

In an age when connectivity has evolved into something so powerful as to topple nations such questions seem almost asinine.  Still, it helps to ask the question if only to clarify the answer.

The power provided us by WEB 2.0 tools is unprecedented.  It has created unheard of connectivity, brand new social paradigms, communicative constructs that can either hinder opportunities or exponentially magnify them.  Can you really use LinkedIn to get a job?  Hell yeah you can!

My old mandate rings true, build a network, leverage a network, create an opportunity.

Everyone knows company recruiters, managers, as well as associates looking out for their friends trawl LinkedIn’s professional network seeking opportunity.  The possibilities each of us bring the network magnify the possibility for job prospects tremendously.  In fact, I haven’t googled so I can’t quantify the number for you, but basic observation proves out the theory.  We can see people locking jobs through LinkedIn.  It is happening!

It is the power of data aggregated appropriately to create meaningful information, which is what data becomes when it is logically constructed to make sense, and once it is information the power inherent in it becomes conveyed through communication.  The more rich the communicative experience the more effective the experience.

In this we find tremendous value.  LinkedIn on its initial interface is a rich communications experience.  The personal profile is a dynamic vehicle you can use to tailor your message as necessary.  There are various plug-ins you can employ that will enrich your profile and attract attention that is positive, increasing your possibilities for creating strong connections that will yield real results.

Remember, this is your personal brand.  The Lock The Job process is all about building your brand and telling the story of you.  LinkedIn is an intergal part of the Lock The Job process.  It is one of many avenues we utilize in order to re-build your brand into a vehicle for powerful and positive differentiation.

Which takes us back to the old mandate. Your network has value.  Your connections have value.  The professional network paradigm builds on the old concept of who you know.  You can leverage LinkedIn to see in depth professionally who you know, who they know, who they might be connected to, who’s looked at your profile recently, and what value you can find through these various connections.  I cannot express to you enough just how powerful this is.

Have you heard of Bullhorn Reach?  If you haven’t don’t worry, you will. Go on LinkedIn and check it out.  Have you endorsed someone for a skill?  If you haven’t don’t worry, you probably will.  We’ll discuss these aspects of the network in upcoming articles.  For now, know that these tools enrich the networking experience and increase you chances for connectivity and opportunity, thus your ability to use the professional network to Lock The Job.

Clearly, this is not a difficult proposition for you to understand and internalize.  LinkedIn has been in operation for about ten years.  It is a closely observed company on Wall Street.  In terms of recruiting it has become an indispensible tool.  If you are not on LinkedIn … WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!  Get online now, take a look at other profiles now, choose the best in breed of those profiles now, collect your information now, create your profile and tell you story on LinkedIn now!

Can you use LinkedIn to Lock The Job?  Now … I don’t need to answer that question again, do I?

The Aspiring Critical Thinker,
D.S. Brown

3FE: Lock The Job - Are You Fit For The Job?

The job market is improving.  There is absolutely no doubt about it.  However, given the fluctuations of available jobs and the regions of the country in which jobs are even available, not to mention the required skills set, one must ask …are you a fit for the job?

Over the years, and most especially in IT, there have been loud arguments about time wasted on interviews.  There have been discussions about jobs being specifically tailored for certain people, especially people who are here on temporary work visas, known as H1B visas. 

The concern is that Americans are being marginalized in favor of foreign workers.  However, we cannot forget that we are also still in a skills dearth in the United States.  Companies in some instances can only find qualified workers on foreign shores.  No matter what you might think, in many instances this is the unfortunate truth.  We need a firm commitment to STEM education in order to rebuild our nation’s skills bench.

Now, of course many Americans say this is rubbish.  The truth gets lost in the emotion of need.  Still, our technical markets are to some degree being flooded by workers from overseas.  However, if you think this does not apply to you personally and you know deep down that you have the skills to do the job, then perhaps you are a fit.  For you, the fact that America has a technical skills gap might not be an issue.  You may have the skills necessary to make you qualified for the job.  If you do have the skills, you then must think about why you have not Locked The Job.

As ever, we can apply critical consideration to the activity.  Most certainly if you know that you are qualified, then don’t consider an interview a waste of time.  Don’t consider sending in your resume a waste of time.  Don’t look at a company and say they are only hiring foreigners and that approaching them is a waste of time.

You must live what you believe and know in no uncertain terms that you ARE A FIT FOR THE JOB!

What does this mean and how can we make the statement truly effective?  It goes back to your brand.  And in maximizing your brand we can lean on 3FE and the Lock The Job process.

We’ve talked about building a network, leveraging your network, and creating an opportunity.  This blog has been all about thinking critically and building your brand.  We’ve talked about turning your boring resume into a 3FE masterpiece based on the Red Resume model.  We’ve talked about these things with one goal in mind, getting you placed, LOCKING THE JOB.  You cannot lose sight of that goal, and with that understanding in mind you must think critically about the job you want, the position that is open, the company that is offering it, and whether or not you actually fit.

Do the necessary work and determine if the job is for you.  Do you truly satisfy the skills requirements?  Do you understand as best as you are able what type of organization it is from a cultural standpoint?  Will you be happy there?  And no, the need to just make money does not trump your need to be happy.  The economic environment is improving and you do not have to compromise your happiness in order to earn a dollar. Work to determine the truth of whether you are or are not a fit for the job.

If you find through your research that you are a fit for a job then go for it with everything you can bring to bear.  However, remember that as an aspiring critical thinker on the hunt for a great job you are going for the position far from the norm, away from the traditional mode.  You are your brand and you are putting your brand to work for you.  You have written a new courageous resume, a Red Resume that tells the story of why you are the right person for the job.  You are connecting to others at the company through networking events and local organizations.  On your LinkedIn profile you’ve even added a Visual Resume through SlideShare that shows just how dynamic you truly are.  You are prepped and ready for the interview, and when you do show up you have more than just your resume.  You have artifacts that detail your work, and at the right moment you will direct them to your website, where you showcase all your talent.  You are a fit for the job, and in doing what I’ve detailed here, you will most certainly Lock The Job

The Aspiring Critical Thinker,

D.S. Brown

3FE: Lock The Job - Are You A Resume Chicken?

Have you given up before you even started?

Are you fresh out of college, or are you at the end of your rope at your current job?  And if you are truly on the edge of the end, are you doing what’s necessary to insure your next step is a good step, a true step that leads to critical success instead of the long fall into the doom of job search hell?

Critical success is the planned achievement of something urgent and essential, utilizing skillful planning and judgment for the express purpose of attaining personal prosperity.

Hey, how does your resume look?  Is it tuned for critical success?  Have you given up on your resume?  Or, does your resume have all the requisite pieces that everyone tells you it should have?  Are you conforming to the status quo?  Are you doing nothing, or are you just doing whatever everyone else is doing?

Are you afraid to stand out?  Are you afraid to maximize your brand?  Are your afraid to brand your resume for critical success? Are you a resume chicken?

Indeed, these are critical questions for a critical subject matter, securing and Locking The job.

When we talk about locking the job we are talking about bringing everything we can think of within reason to the job of finding a job.  In the process of finding a job we must consider critically what is required to make ourselves look like champion candidates, right?

These are concepts we’ve covered before and will cover again.  Differentiation is absolutely key.  How do you stand out positively?  What’s going to mark you as different from the crowd, all clamoring for a job and all submitting resumes at a break-neck speed, all of them looking almost, if not exactly like your own?

That’s the critical question.  Does you resume look like everyone else’s?  Are you afraid to stand out?  Are you afraid to look different?  Are you afraid that if you take the time to craft a resume that is radical when compared to everyone else that you will stand out in a negative fashion and NOT lock the job?  Again, are you a resume chicken? 

You are a resume chicken if you can’t think outside the norm with regard to how you effectively brand yourself.  Your resume is your extended personal business card.  It’s who you are as far is the recruiter is concerned.   You must put your all into its development. 

I was on a plane last week flying back to Atlanta and I saw a women who was perhaps in her late twenties.  She had her laptop opened and she was working on her resume.  I gave it a look-see.  It was boring.  It put me in the mind of the reams of resumes I had seen over the last year, and how so few of them really stood out in any way that said I’m not only good, but I’m GREAT!  And, I am the absolute right candidate for YOUR job. 

If you are in looking for a job then there are some things you must do, and you must do them with a critical thinking mind.

You must first recognize that you have a job.  It doesn’t pay so you need to be about completing it speedily, efficiently, and with maximum effectiveness.  You must first understand that your job is finding a job.

Once you understand your current job and you’ve accepted the reality if your situation free of the majority of the emotional baggage that comes with being unemployed you must start to aggressively think critically.  Use the Lock The Job process and 3FE: Find, Focus, establish the Fundamental, and Execute in order to build a plan for finding your paying job. 

In line with this article, you must not be a RESUME CHICKEN.  You must look at your resume and build it as the powerful representation of you that you know it needs to be.  Put the right amount of industry buzz words in there, not too many, but enough to get the recruiters interested.  PUT SOME COLOR IN IT!  That’s right, put some color in your resume.  STAND OUT!  Most people will tell you this is a NO-NO!  This is what I say … what have you got to lose?  If one way doesn’t work, try another. 

And tell me a story.  In the heart of your resume tell the story of you and the wonderful work you did on your last job and why that work is so appropriate to what I need you to do.  Tell me a story and convince me.  Don’t blind me with boring details or take me on a historical trip to when you worked at a hot dog stand.  Don’t hurt my brain with dizzying line after line detailing all your certifications and degrees.  Tell me what you have actually done with those certifications.  Prove to me in vivid color that I NEED YOU! 

Consider this approach to Locking The Job and securing your career.  Consider this approach to how you communicate with people and brand yourself.  Consider this approach in how you build your extended business card, your resume.  Stand out.  Be bold.  Be courageous.  Be fearless.  Don’t be a resume chicken.

The Aspiring Critical Thinker,

D.S. Brown

3FE: Lock The Job - Is LinkedIn Really That Important?

There is a question more and more people are starting to ask … is LinkedIn really that important?  Is the answer yes?  Is the answer no?  Is the answer a little bit of both? 

There are multiple perspectives with this question, no different from any other question.  However, if we would seek to fully understand what we are asking and thereby clarify an appropriate answer, perhaps we should ask the question differently.  Maybe we should ask the following:

Does LinkedIn add value for me personally?

Yes, that’s a much better question, one we can readily answer with value and certainty.  We can break the exercise down by looking at the aspects of a LinkedIn profile, what that profile can do for you, and how exposing that profile to others in a network can generate opportunity.

In the 3FE: Lock The Job process we specifically call out creating your presence on the web.  Creating your presence on the web is much more than creating a LinkedIn profile.  However, a LinkedIn profile is a very important and integral part of your overall web strategy.

Yes, I said strategy.  Understand, part of your job in locking the job or building a career is grabbing hold of all your potential and putting out there in the most effective manner possible.  This creation and elevation of your personal brand means you must have a plan both tactical and strategic.  You must detail the things you’re going to do now as well as the eventual objective you wish to achieve.

LinkedIn allows you to do a number of things critical to crafting a strong brand and presenting it in a manner that counts.  With this understanding it becomes quite clear that a LinkedIn profile adds value in general by adding value to your web presence in particular.  Let’s break down exactly how it does this: 

1. Your Name and What you do is highlighted at the top of the page.  As with any social network profile it announces quite specifically who you are and what you are doing.  In this sense it’s geared towards the professional social, as opposed to just the fun social.
2. There’s a section for your Summary, a place to tell your story and provide the maximum amount of impact in saying who you are and what you do.
3. You can highlight your Experiences, detailing what you have done over the course of your career.  This is where you get to add specific details about what you’ve done for a given organization.
4. In the Skills and Expertise section people get to attest to what you can do by virtue of a LinkedIn function, which may or may not provide critical information in terms of your potential.  There is an argument in terms of the efficacy of this section of the profile, as people can recommend you for skills and not really know you at all.  We’ll discuss this in another article.
5. There is a section where you can highlight what projects you’ve worked on over the course of your career that show your strengths and can prove your distinctiveness.
6. There’s a section for you to detail your education.
7. There’s also a section for others to write recommendations for you.  This is the area of testimonials, and just like with any good product you want to show here what good things people have to say about you, about your brand. 

The seven points I’ve listed here are just the tip of the LinkedIn iceberg.  LinkedIn has provided additional functionality that allows you to showcase what makes you great, as well as allowing you to leverage the power of social networking in order to share your brand with the LinkedIn world. 

Can this lead to opportunities?  Absolutely!  Does this add value?  Go back and read over the seven points.  This is more than just a resume. It’s interactive.  It’s asynchronous communication.  It’s call and response.  It’s you being able to put yourself out into the datasphere for consideration by those who can open doors.

Remember, build a network, leverage a network, create an opportunity. 

The effective utilization of LinkedIn can most certainly create an opportunity for you.  In this, it has incredible value.  However, the effectiveness of that value-adding proposition is only as strong as the work you put into it.  A poor profile and poor engagement produces poor results.  A strong profile, leveraging the additional functionality LinkedIn has to offer can produce excellent results. 

Understand, today’s organizations are using LinkedIn just as much as you are. During a job search many employers consider LinkedIn to be their first stop.  If it’s not the first stop you can be absolutely certain it will be one of their stops on the road to evaluating you for a position.  As such, your entire web presence must be branded to show you as the essential differentiating factor that is critical for the position they are seeking to fill.  And of course, part of your web presence today quite clearly must include LinkedIn.  

The Aspiring Critical Thinker,

D.S. Brown



3FE: Lock The Job - The American Job Market Is Improving

The American job market is improving! 

There, I said it.  I said it and I mean it.  Observation is key to the truth, which should spur hope and motivation.  We should be motivated by what we see as we have come to understand there are only two factors that create jobs, only two.  The two factors that create jobs are innovation and demand.  That’s it.  Nothing else does it.  All other variables are sub-variables of these two critical factors.

Unfortunately for those that would seek motivation, there are people continuing to talk about how abysmal the job market is.  They are writing articles.  They are talking about people checking out of the job market and no longer looking for a job.  They’re even saying people are lying about the statistics.  Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion and for the individual I would ask you to not be clouded by the noise from the media.  Let your eyes, ears, and own research form your opinion.  And once you have formed a strong supportable opinion, act on it.

Let’s be clear on facts.  Certain facts can be validated by observation.  You don’t need to rely on what someone else reports in the news, on the web, or on television.  You must consider data from multiple sources when applying critical thinking to a given problem, such as unemployment.  However, you must also seek to discount hyperbole, emotion, and heightened opinion. 

Essentially you must consider the employment picture from your perspective, from where you live and work.  How is your community performing during this slow economic recovery?  Do you see hiring signs in your neighborhood?  Do you see the engine of the economic cycle revving up? Are people buying stuff?  Are people using their money on discretionary spending?  Are they having more fun with their money?  And most importantly, are they over the transition?  Are more of the people you know actually finding work or even switching jobs because the opportunity to do so has presented itself? 

The American Job market is improving because the American economy is improving.  There are still areas that are suffering without question, and we must agree that they are suffering horribly.  However, as a counterweight to this desperation there are areas where the job markets have vastly improved. 

What city do you live in? 

This is a critical question because the answer matters.  There are some cities where the job market is incredibly painful, seemingly hopeless, and the jobs that are available in the more desirable pay ranges are open to increased competition.  There are far too many people vying for the same job, and if you haven’t differentiated yourself appropriately then the odds are you won’t get the job.

Should you relocate?  Are you in the right place?  This is something you must consider.  If you are in the right place, what are you doing to Lock The Job?  I have mentioned this before and must continue to mention it for as long as there is a need.  You need a branding makeover.  You need to differentiate yourself.  Many of you need to take some time to work on training and education.  Many of you need to work on subsisting for three months, six months, or a year while you do the hard work of increasing your skills, and the additional work of branding and showcasing those skills to the world so that you effectively stand out, and can then proceed to Lock The Job.

With 3FE, the tool for motivational empowerment we utilize basic critical thinking skills in order to lay out a plan for critical success.  What is critical success?  It is the planned achievement of something urgent and essential utilizing skillful planning and judgment for the express purpose of attaining prosperity.  For those of us searching for employment critical success is finding and locking a job, and growing a career. 

Don’t let the downers and those sitting in the doldrums dissuade you from the truth.  Demand has increased.  If you work in Information Technology demand is growing and growing every day.  Innovation in new products and processes help spur that demand.  If you have what it takes don’t sit on the sideline and let opportunity pass you by.  FIND what’s necessary for you as a prospective employee.  FOCUS on the details and highlight them appropriately in a comprehensive re-branding of self.  Establish a FUNDAMENTAL plan that encompasses all your preparative activities and your plan for focusing on the job you seek to lock.  When you’re ready, EXECUTE and you will 3FE: Lock The Job.

The Aspiring Critical Thinker,
D.S. Brown

3FE: Lock The Job - What Is 3FE & How Do You Lock It?

In the quest to Lock The Job it is absolutely imperative that you utilize critical thinking skills.  In fact, critical thinking is absolutely integral to living effectively in all aspects of our lives.  Some may call this an opinion.  For an effective life, I consider it a fact.

3FE is the tool for motivational empowerment and the everyday individual’s tool for applying critical thinking to any given situation.  3FE: Lock The Job is the utilization of the tool in order to gain employment and put your career in over-drive.

In order to understand 3FE:Lock The Job we must understand 3FE in general.  The tool is designed for simplicity and at its heart are principles many of us learned in grade school.  The great thing about using grade school principles to solve real-world complex problems is that we can break them down into the constituent components and address them in child-like fashion, making the activity infinitely rewarding, and if we go about it the right way … FUN!

3FE is Find, Focus, establish the Fundamentals, Execute.  FIND is the act of scouring for data.  In any given problem we must gather data.  Raw unvarnished data may be numbers, facts, addresses, names, incidents, occurrences, products developed, customer base, employee stats, retention, turnover, employee satisfaction, salary, benefits.  WHO are we looking to connect with at WHAT?  WHY do want to connect with this organization? WHEN can we connect?  WHEN must we have made our connection?  HOW long until we are in dire straits if we are trying to secure a position?  HOW can we connect with important individuals in this organization? WHERE is the organization located and WHERE do they go to look for prospects?   WHERE can I meet people that might have contacts with the organization?  The organization, IT Folks Incorporated looks like the kind of place we might like, where we might build a career.

We take this data and we start to scrutinize it, to either understand its meaning, or give it meaning based on the additional data we discover. By looking closer at the data we are focusing.

Focus is the phase of 3FE where we start to ask pertinent questions about the data we’ve collected.  We FOCUS on the details by elaborating on those basic critical questions we learned in elementary school.  We look closer at the details and start to make inferences that work well for us.  IT Folks Incorporated maintains ties with all the local recruiting offices.  However, they also sponsor organizations like BDPA, Next Level Technology Foundation, Women In Technology, and LISTA.

By Focusing on what we have found we start to see relations between the disparate bits of data.  Now the data has meaning, with meaning it becomes information, and as we examine and work with the information we can discern a logical path of progression.  This path of progression becomes our list of tasks, our schedule, our plan.  This is how we establish the FUNDAMENTALS.  The FUNDAMENTAL part of 3FE is how build a plan that we can use to achieve our goal. 

We have asked critical thinker’s questions.  We have kept it simple.  We have focused on the data and refined it as information.  We have looked at the information and what makes sense to us is a plan that requires us to not only reach out to recruiting agencies that have a relationship with IT Folks Inc., but we should also join one of the organizations that IT Folks sponsors, like BDPA.  We leverage not only the skills the recruiting agencies can bring to our job search but we understand clearly that we must build a network, leverage a network, and create an opportunity.

With a plan in hand, the only thing for us to do is EXECUTE the plan starting today.  Simplicity and elegance of execution are the key.  We want to achieve the objective and we want to do it in such a fashion that is motivating and elevating, confident and fulfilling.  This, is 3FE: Find, Focus, establish the Fundamentals, Execute.

In the Lock The Job process 3FE becomes Finding the company we want to target, Focusing on the details about the company and the people that can perhaps help us in a quest to join their ranks, establishing a Fundamental plan that increases the likelihood that said company will make us an offer; through critical thinking questions and answers that differentiate us and elevate us above the competition, and finally Executing a plan that we have put together that ends with us working for the company we’ve targeted. 

This, is 3FE:Lock The Job in action.

Utilizing critical thinking skills in everyday problem solving activities is not common place.  We aren’t taught to think critically.  We aren’t taught to problem solve.  We aren’t taught to use our minds in such a manner as to ease our burdens through the application of logic, partnered with passion, not overwhelmed by emotion.  3FE is the poor man’s critical thinking tool, an approach that works, that motivates, that when used correctly will most certainly guide you, and help you Lock The Job.  Consider it critically, and use it today!

The Aspiring Critical Thinker,

D.S. Brown

3FE: Lock The Job – If You Are Jobless The Job Search Is Your Job

It’s Monday morning and you have no desire to get up and continue the grind, the search, the look for something that has eluded you for almost four years.  You are not lazy.  You are not a quitter.  You are just incredibly, so incredibly tired.  You are tired of looking for a job.

It is always darkest before the dawn.

This is not a trite statement, especially in light of the changing economic environment. Corporations have squeezed incredible amounts of efficiency out of their employees.  Technology has allowed companies to increase profit margins without increasing payrolls. Globalization has allowed corporations to leverage efficiencies by using workers from all corners of the globe.  However, innovation is burgeoning and demand has increased.

Innovation and demand are the only two factors that create jobs.  That’s it.  That’s all.  All other factors are sub-variables of innovation and demand, and at this point in time job creators cannot continue to leverage their current work forces and manage to keep pace.  In essence, they are hiring.

So now is not the time to quit.  No matter what morning it is you must arise from bed ready to proceed with the job you have.  And if you are unemployed the critical point you must internalize and understand without equivocation is that you have a job.  Your current job is the job of looking for gainful employment that pays the bills, satisfies your desires within the confines of the best that is available, and offers you the opportunity to be fulfilled.

You may have been serious about the search for employment.  Or, maybe you have not taken it as seriously as you should.  No matter what has been, now is the time for you to make a change, to view what is before you with the seriousness it requires.  If you are jobless the job search is your job.

Apply the power of critical thinking to the job search and see yourself become successful.  I would ask that you use 3FE, the tool for motivational empowerment in order to harness everyday critical thinking skills in your effort to find a job.  3FE is Find, Focus, establish the Fundamentals, and Execute.  Use this tool in order to identify your path forward every morning.  Use this tool to remain positive and elevated as your pursue your goal along the path you have chosen.

Find the job opportunities for the week, or the day.  Identify which jobs you are going to pursue, which companies you want to place in the crosshairs.  Who are your targets?  Identify them, write them down, consider them deeply, and move aggressively into the next phase of 3FE. 

Focus on the companies you’ve identified.  Why have you chosen these companies?  What do they have to offer?  Who do you know or who can you rely on to give you the inside track on these companies?  Remember, build a network, leverage a network, create an opportunity.   When will you approach these companies, when will you be prepared to go on the interview, what will you do to be prepared for the interview, when will you schedule the interview?  Put the tasks on your calendar.

Now, you’re establishing your Fundamental plan.  You have dates for the tasks that prepare you.  You have tasks that help you gather your information about the companies you seek to engage.  You have a time and action plan for your interviews, and you have given earnest thought about how you will present yourself in the interviews.  In fact, you have given the effort a great deal of thought and you have pursued the 3FE: Lock The Job approach to pursuing the job and you have re-branded yourself appropriately.

Your plan is clear.  You have prepared your approach.  You have utilized the 3FE: Red Resume treatment, and your resume is appropriately colorful.  You have practiced you elevator and anti-elevator speech.  You have prepared your artifacts for review.  You even have developed www.I_Am_Hot.com to highlight what skills you bring to the job.  You are ready.  You can, and you will Execute. 

My mission in this article and in my interaction with all who seek me out is to remain committed to empowering each and every last one of you.  To do what I can to help you clarify the task, achieve the objective, and lock the job.  Remember, if you are looking for a job, the job search is your job … and if you conduct the search with the right frame of mind, you will indeed Lock The Job.  This, I promise you.   

The Aspiring Critical Thinker,

D.S. Brown