All posts by Sean Feeney

The Résumé of You is… YOU!

Self Improvement

I have seen it again and again, people who start searching for jobs begin censoring their Facebook profiles, creating/updating LinkedIn, and adding new content to their résumé. If you do this, you have already failed! In a time where employers are asking what your klout scores are or recruiters are offering jobs over LinkedIn my previous statement may seem a little harsh, but often times people try to sell themselves and it is too little too late. Here are a few ways successful people take the “résumé of you” to a whole new level!

 

Embrace Social Networking

I am sure many of you have heard the horror stories of people losing job opportunities because they had an embarrassing picture on Facebook. This is entirely possible; however, there are many ways you can deal with this situation and create an environment worthy of public visibility without hoping you set your privacy settings up correctly.

Create your social ecosystem by being open, positive, and share successes when you meet personal goals. If you post to social networks like minded people flock to the items you post. Think about it, people will like, retweet and share items that are relevant to them. If you are negative, people who relate and are having a bad day may also feed into it creating more exposure to your negativity. If you post that photo of you drunk at a party, some of your friends and acquaintances will think it is ok and the next time you may find that they think it is ok to do the same. On the flip side, if you are positive and share information about an interest or career goal, people who are also positive will very likely engage with you in just this way. YOU create your social ecosystem.

 

Become the “Expert” – Prove your Knowledge

Your résumé shows you know a bunch of bullet points on what you know and what you have done, right? Prove it!

Share your knowledge. One of the best ways to viewed as if you know what you are talking about is to write about it. With WordPress, starting a blog is free. Get out there and become passionate about topics you find interesting. Spend a few minutes reading about topics in your industry and provide some commentary about them. YOU don’t have to write a lot, you don’t have to be the expert, you just have to be passionate and engaging.

 

Every Social Opportunity is a Networking Opportunity

Has a hiring manager ever walked you out or a boss just “had a chat” in the hallway? What you probably didn’t realize, this is their way to try getting to know you in a personal, unguarded way.

Treat every social interaction as an interview. Formal interviews are often structured based on a company’s template for running effective interviews. Here, they will pull you into an office or conference room and drill you with questions about your experience and previous education and job related activities. You, will be prepared and answer those questions with the utmost professionalism. What you may not realize is that they have already narrowed the list of potential candidates to 10 or fewer people who all say on paper they can do the job; however, when they walk you out or your current boss follows you down the hall after a 1-on-1, you may find them asking questions like, do you have kids, where do you live, or what do you think of the local football team this year? Often times they are actually giving you a second interview to catch you when your guard is down and see how you handle informal interactions, to see how you are different from the rest or to see what level of risk you will be to them. Not interviewing? What you may not realize is that your current boss may have two excellent employees and HR is only allowing one promotion this year. These informal talks may just be a way to see who is more professional and best suited for the promotion. YOU, need to stand out from the crowd as being better than the other candidate.

 

90% of Reqs are Filled Before Being Posted

I know what you are thinking, “how can that be possible? If it was filled, why would they even post it?” The interesting thing is, this is one of the more memorable quotes I’ve ever heard come from a director and up of a major fortune 500 company.

The Power of Doing The Job You Want, Not Waiting For It. This is the title of another post I wrote in detail. I am with you, if someone told me this a few years ago I would have told them they are crazy; however, last year I got to experience it for myself. In short, I was working as a support engineer and was actively working on side projects for the company, while I was always hoping for the next growth opportunity. It was the end of 2011 and I was tapped on the shoulder by a Senior Director and was asked to join a new venture within the company to start a new team. At the start, the team was an experiment and was told there would be no official title change or promotion because there were no reqs, but when there is one posted you can apply to it and get the job officially. Strange, huh? This sort of thing happens fairly frequently. Another example is a friend of mine recently changed jobs. The interesting part to note was that he already did the bulk of the negotiations before there was a req and even before the interview. How is this possible? He maintained a great relationship with the hiring manager at his previous position. The rest was just a formality for tracking purposes. YOU, just might be applying for a job, before you even know it!

 

Final Thoughts

If there is anything you take away from this post remember, in a sea of sameness, YOU need to show how YOU stand out from the crowd. No one else or no one application can do this for you. It becomes increasingly important to find ways to make you unique and stand out from the crowd. Just think of the impact it will be when you are shooting for your next job and when the hiring manager ask why you should be considered for the role, you can just point them to one of the many outlets you use to demonstrate how YOU actually know/do the job, and don’t rely on a few bullet points and a smile to sell the “résumé of you!”

I don’t presume to have all the answers, so please comment below!  I would love to hear your stories and feedback!

 

Guide to Become an Entrepreneur – Get Feedback and Learn From Others

Design, Entrepreneur, , , ,

Up until recently I have always toyed with the idea of creating a company and becoming an entrepreneur,  but wasn’t sure where to start.  I wasn’t certain how to build a business or where to get feedback and find answers to my questions.  After all, most people I know are not trying to start anything new, but instead they’re content with working their regular 9-5.  I put this list together with what helped me, to help others get started and more importantly, gain feedback and learn from other experiences.

Social Networking

twitter I am sure you have heard this a thousand times, social networking is a great way to interact and find people to help you on your journey.  If you are on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+ and are finding yourself not understanding why you are not reaping the benefits, look at how you are interacting.  Are you just posting questions that only your followers can see?  Are you adding hashtags hoping someone sees you in a search for #entrepreneur? If so, you might be doing it wrong.

Try this instead.  Get out there and ask someone a direct question.  Social networks are not only meant to be a place for you to say what comes to your mind and hope someone listens.  Social networks are meant to be, well, social.  When trying to start Pixel Precise LLC I was crippled by the idea of launching and worrying about copyrights, legal, how to claim a company with the state, etc.  So I took a leap of faith and asked Jay Adelson, Ex-CEO of Digg.com and host of podcast AskJay I was watching at the time,  a direct question on twitter.

 

Podcasts

TED Ideas worth spreadingPodcasts are great, you can learn a lot from watching 1 a day or even just a few  a week.  They are designed to fit busy life styles (< 30min per episode), you can load them onto your phone or tablet, and they are often to-the-point without all of the fluff that comes from TV programming. Even if a show isn’t dedicated to business you may find some value in them.  The podcast FilmRiot, is like this; I am not a film guy, but I learn a lot about what sort of hard-work goes into podcast production by watching this show.  It has the added benefit of being very entertaining as well. Who knows, maybe one of these days I will need to create a video for my company and will be able to utilize these great tips!

If you are looking for something that is a little more to the topic of business, I would try TED or AskJay.  Ask Jay is no longer in production, but there are still ~70 episodes of tips and answers to viewer questions.  I know I have asked myself a few of those questions before.  Next is TED Talks. Ted is a wonderful podcast that is still in production where people from all over the globe give amazing talks about their experiences and provide you with groundbreaking research at no cost to you!

Entrepreneur Communities

EntrepreneurMy first choice is Reddit, these people are brutally honest and you can remain anonymous to protect your ideas. Okay, I know what you are thinking, “Reddit? Really? Isn’t that the website with cats and memes?” Well yes, but it is also the home to reddit.com/r/entrepreneur, a sub-community solely focused on helping other entrepreneurs be successful.  Think of it as a forum to ask questions, get feedback and learn from other experiences.  If Reddit not your thing, give Google+ Communities a try.  It has a cleaner interface without all of the (cat) distractions. Also, Google+ Communities have multiple different pages around similar categories. So if one doesn’t work for you, there is an option to either create your own or try another one that suites your needs.

Design Communities

forrstThe times are here, you can’t honestly run a business without some sort of online presence.  That means you will have to buckle down and design logos, websites, etc. Two popular and prominent communities are Dribbble and Forrst.  Personally, I use Forrst. Here you can post designs and get honest feedback on how you can do better. Starting out, you don’t need many friends because once you post, many people will see your content and provide you with feedback and tips.  As for Dribbble the concept is similar, admittedly I haven’t had as much luck with feedback when starting out.  Maybe you will, you can always use it as a way to gain inspiration and find out what others are coming up with for creations.

Business Websites

Fast CompanyThere are many business websites out there, but one I really like is Fast Company.  Fast company always has compelling articles, sections on leadership and design, and there is the always interesting 30 Second MBA.  The 30 second MBA is a series of videos from different CEOs who talk about a business related topic 30 seconds! If you are looking to supplement yourself with more content just like Fast Company, try Inc or VentureBeat. Both are similar in content and appeal.
 

Local State Website

Step by Step Guide to Starting a Business in MassachusettsI won’t get into too much detail here because depending on where you are from, the information may be different. That said, I live in Massachusetts and I found this helpful how to start a business guide on my states website.  I am sure if you look around, you will find something similar for your location.  I was able to use this guide to find out how to get an LLC for my company Pixel Precise.

Productivity Tip: Turning Text Articles Into a Podcast

New Post,

If you are like me, you are probably always multitasking and at times it is difficult keeping up with the news of the day while working or running errands. So, what would be better than to select a few news articles and listen to them whilst remaining productive? Here’s how:

For this article I am going to focus on iOS (because that is what I have), there is probably an android way of doing this too. If you find one, send me some screenshots!

First, you need to set up the speak selection setting from, Settings > General > Accessibility; then, turn on speak selection and change the speech rate to something that is easy for you to follow.

20120926-174014.jpg

Now that you have your phone setup, I recommend installing an app which allows you to easily read posts later. Personally, I like Pocket (formerly Read It Later). This is a great app because you can install a browser extension and then install the mobile app for a simple and seamless sharing solution.

Once you have installed the app and bookmarked your content, fire up the app and select all of the text. Since turning on the speak selection feature you can now see a speak option next to copy. Click speak and enjoy!

20120926-174001.jpg

As always, let me know what you think in the comments below!

New Company Coming Soon! – Pixel Precise LLC

Pixel Precise

PP-logo-bg-shadow

For a while now I have been building a portfolio of web sites and fixing computers on the side. I have finally taken the leap of claiming this as a company. This is such a big step in the right direction and my mind is going wild with ideas.

This is still the very early stages and I don’t have an official website or anything of that sort right now but, stay tuned for many exciting things to come!

How Dating Posts Can Work Against You ( SEO )

Design, New Post, SEO, Wordpress, , , , ,

Too long didn’t read version >>

Backstory

For those of you who may not know, I run a website called AfternoonCrash.com. Recently, I had a story go viral after my post on Heath Ledger’s Inspiration for the Joker was high on the Google ranking for anything related to Heath Ledger and the Joker. My post had been around for months and saw a little traffic here and there. Once the internet took hold if it suddenly it popped up everywhere including some pretty mainstream sites as “new.” Hardly anyone gave credit where credit was due but, I am not here to complain about that.

What I found very interesting was, my post was suddenly marked old by Google and fell very far down on the ranking. The people who knew where the post came from, had to search for Heath Ledger, the Joker and afternooncrash in order to find they post they were familiar with (I watched my stats like a hawk). This concerned me because now all of a sudden, my traffic started going down and those other sites were apparently more relevant to Google.

Technical Solution

Was the date of the post really the issue, or was it something else like the popularity of the website? I had a hunch and did some research, that is when I came across an article by ProBlogger.net where the author stated:

“Dates on Recent Posts But Not on Older Ones – I saw one blogger do this last year (I’m afraid I don’t remember who it was). They had hacked WordPress so that dates appeared on recent posts (within the last 3 months) but anything older than that did not have time stamps either on the post or comments. This meant that the blogger benefited from new posts looking new and took the potential distraction of old posts away from readers. I don’t know exactly how the blogger did it but presume they set up a rule that looked at the date of authorship and then determined whether the date would be displayed or not.”

This idea sounded exactly like what I was looking for. With a quick Google search I found a post on http://goodkarmahost.com which showed exactly how to do this in WordPress.

It is as simple as replacing the following line in my single.php file:

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<?php the_time('F jS, Y') ?>

With:

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<?php
$today = date('r');
$articledate = get_the_time('r');
$difference = round((strtotime($today) - strtotime($articledate))/(24*60*60),0);
if ($difference >= 30)
{
?>
<!-- Aged Gem -->
<?php
} else {?>
<!-- Fresh Gem --><strong><?php the_time('F jS, Y') ?></strong>
<?php
}?>

Conclusion

Finally, what does this all mean? Once I implemented this code to remove dates from older posts, suddenly my post found its way to the top of the Google search and, traffic is starting to flow again.

Now, if you are posting time sensitive material then you probably won’t want to do this. However, if you material isn’t time sensitive this is an excellent solution to keep your recent content relevant by containing dates and showing your readers that you are regularly updating the site, as well as, keeping your older content relevant and not automatically buried by Google because you were one of the first people to discover the content.

For more information on dating content I suggest you check out the article on ProBlogger.net.

As always, I would love to hear what you have to say in the comments! Send me all of your success or failure stories.