"Murmuration gives me hope"

I heard Mitch Joel's Twist Image podcast where he interviewed Don Tapscot about the new book "Macrowikinomics". The podcast was insightful as Mitch and Don allowed us to listen in to their conversation.  Sit down with a good cup of your favorite beverage and you'll come away with some learning and some hope.

On a weekly basis, Mitch posts some links that he finds during the week that are worthy of sharing. This is very much like #the5 but spread over a week so it like the "best of #the5". The video clip he shares to close this week's post is of the murmuration that occurs in England as the starlings settle for the evening. Don Tapscott takes the murmuration as an example of his macrowikinomics and shares his insights. The video itself is wonderful with Pachelbel's Canon in the background, it is a joy to watch and learn from. I do come away with the "murmuration gives me hope"!



What do you think?

Do you find hope in this? Is this another way of looking at the lessons of the geese?

You can use LinkedIn to find out how to get there!

Matt Youngquist has a great posting on how to use the search features of LinkedIn to figure out how people have changed from one profession to another. He provides a few examples like this one for a lawyer who is not happy with law.

Example #2: “Matt, I’m an attorney who is sick of the stress, the billable hours, and the constant jokes being made at parties at my expense. What else am I qualified to do, though? I’m really not in a position to start over, go get a new degree, and work my way up from the bottom of the ladder again.”

Proposed Solution: Again, mosey on over to the LinkedIn Advanced People Search page, and this time, type “law degree” OR “juris doctor” in the Keywords box. Then type the phrase -attorney -counsel -lawyer -partner -paralegal -judge -candidate -juris -doctor in the Title box. You have to use a bit of trial and error, of course, to figure out the exact words to exclude (using the minus signs) in the search, so don’t worry if it takes you a couple of searches to narrow down the best set of results. This time, however, my search unveiled 20,000+ people across the country who hold law degrees, but who are NOT currently working in an obvious role within the legal system. Pretty cool, eh? Each of these people blazed a trail before you — and figured out how to parlay that expensive degree in a different direction!

Read the full posting at Matt's blog:
http://careerhorizons.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/linkedin-tip-career-path-brainstorming/

Good luck exploring your new path!

The 99'ers

60Minutes does its thing with the unemployment situation and those who have used their 99 weeks of unemployment.




Keep the faith, the recovery will be slow. Learning, sharing and networking is the only way to survive!

Leadership and Influence Summit

From the folks at ChangeThis comes notice of an online event that should be interesting. The lineup itself is one to draw a crowd. I have seen at least seven of the individuals in this listing in person.

When we asked the ChangeThis audience in a previous survey whether or not you would come to Milwaukee for a ChangeThis conference, featuring the leaders and thought-leaders who have written for us over the years, the most common reply was "Can you put it online." And, though we tried, we weren't able to figure out how to pull that together with the limited resources and staff we have here.

But Daniel Decker and the good folks putting on The Leadership and Influence Summit have, and we are excited to support them in their gargantuan efforts. So, what is The Leadership and Influence Summit?

"It’s a free online event taking place on November 3rd & 4th, featuring video messages from up to 30 leading authorities on how to maximize leadership and influence effectiveness. Each presenters video will be between 6-20 minute in length and will equip you with knowledge and insight that you can use to become a better leader and influencer. If you can’t make the main 2 day event, sign up anyways and we’ll send you a link to watch the replay!"

And, to boot, they’ll provide you with free leadership resources as downloadable tools to help you apply what you’ve learned.

The presenters list is impressive, bordering on the completely insane: Robert Cialdini, Keith Ferrazzi, Jon Gordon, Mark Sanborn, Tim Sanders, Adrian Gostick, Bob Sutton, Jim Kouzes, Susan Scott, Kevin Carroll, Nancy Duarte, Charlene Li, Marshall Goldsmith, Scott Klososky, Chris Brogan, Erwin McManus, Steve Farber, David McNally, Jeremie Kubicek, Tom Ziglar (son of Zig Ziglar), Dr. Tim Irwin, Tony Alessandra, Dr. Tim Elmore, Stan Slap, Scott Eblin, Joe Tye, Kevin Eikenberry and more.

And, just to reiterate… this is free. Many of the presenters have written ChangeThis manifestos, and I've put a list of those below to get you started. But nothing can compare to seeing this concentration of intelligence live, so sign up for The Leadership and Influence Summit today.

It is free and even if you can't catch it in real time, there will be a link available for the replay. Well worth the time it will take to sign up!

Personal inbound marketing

Jon DiPietro spends less than an hour to cover this Personal Inbound Marketing presentation. He doesn't rush, he provides a good overview with snappy slides.

If you recall me talking about being distinct, sharing and learning to create a memorable presence, this is in so many words the same thing. He integrates this presence with a digital footprint and presents this as inbound marketing. Worth the 50 or so minutes to listen to.

Personal Inbound Marketing

View more webinars from Domesticating IT.

Update your toolkit

FINS has been posting some good insights on the job market.

Accenture to hire 7,000
http://it-jobs.fins.com/Articles/SB128689698623746029/Accenture-s-John-Campagnino-Hiring-7-000-This-Year

Intel to create 1,000 new jobs
http://it-jobs.fins.com/Articles/SB128750066088748505/Intel-To-Create-Thousand-New-U-S-Jobs

Are you watching their page or your RSS feed to keep in touch?

Do you have your RSS Reader set up? Do you know what an RSS Reader is?

I encourage you to view the brief video explaining "RSS in Plain English" by the wonderful folks at Common Craft. Click on the link here.

The video was created in April 2007 and is still very much accurate. I use Google Reader. I can process what I read quickly and send an item to a blog, to someone else via email, or to Twitter. Very efficient!

Informational Interviews

When I landed and looked back on what I had done and what I might do differently the next time, one key suggestion was to do more informational interviews. The ones that I did brought great value. I should have done more and will next time.

Ronni Ann devotes a full posting on Getting the Most Out of Informational Interviews.

I figured it’s time to talk a little about how you can get the most out of an informational interview, since informational interviews can play a key part in any good job search.

From the Work Coach Cafe Career Dictionary:

An informational interview is a meeting or phone call with someone you hope will offer some leads to help you find a job. You may in fact wind up meeting someone who knows directly about a job opening either in his or her company or through someone he knows…but more likely you will be looking to get information from your informational interview to help you find leads and/or names to call where you could use your informational’s name to help you get through to someone who does have or know of an actual job.

Read the full posting by Ronni Ann here:
http://www.workcoachcafe.com/2010/10/18/informational-interviews-how-to-get-the-most-out-of-your-informational-interview/

5 Common LinkedIn Fallacies

Neal Shaeffer talks about 5 Common LinkedIn Fallacies in this brief video





and then in detail in this post:
http://windmillnetworking.com/2010/10/19/5-common-linkedin-fallacies-and-why-you-shouldnt-believe-them/

Motivation: fear or hope?

“What motivates you more, fear or hope?”

If you’re a professional currently starting up a job hunt (or can think back to when this was the case), which of these statements would likely have a greater motivational impact on you?

“If you buckle down, get focused, and work really hard at selling yourself, you might find your next job sooner than most people.”

“If you DON’T buckle down, get serious, and work really hard at selling yourself, you may not find another job for quite a long time.”

Given the slowness of the recovery, I hope it won't be a long time for most folks but unfortunately, it may.

What can you do about it?
Take a couple of minutes to complete the reading of Matt Youngquist's posting on Burning Questions for Job Seekers:  http://careerhorizons.wordpress.com/2010/10/20/burning-question-for-job-seekers-11/

Then take charge of your future, take charge of your day and go talk with someone!

Hopkinton Networkers Group (HNG) - Friday, Oct 22

Hello Everyone,

The agenda for this Friday's Hopkinton Networkers Group (HNG) meeting will be featured by our speaker, Gail Greenberg. The facilitator for this week will be Mario Tardif. We will devote the first hour, from 10 to 11 AM to the following agenda: Welcome, Landings, Announcements, New Member Intros, and Needs & Leads. Please arrive early, so we can make every effort to start on time. In the second hour, Gail will talk about "Am I Insane or what?"

"Am I Insane or what?"

Gail will provide details at the meeting.

About Gail Greenberg:

Gail Greenberg functioned as a Senior Project manager in the High-Tech industry in the past 20 years. During this time she was part of a startup company where she held the position of Director of Business Development for 4 years until the company was bought.

As EMC alumni, she focused in Engineering Product Marketing proficient on "time to market" and "effective budgeting". Gail has PMP certification and served as the Director of Marketing of the PMI central chapter for couple of years.

She holds MBA from the Hebrew University and notable technology credentials which she attained during the years.

Since Gail was laid off, few months ago, she made a career change and opened her own real estate business.


Schedule for HNG Meetings:

November 5, 2010 Bill Bean "Reinventing Your Career in the Green Economy"
November 19, 2010 Joellyn Schwerdlin "Overcoming Negative Self-Talk Which Sabotages Job Search Success"
December 3, 2010 William Lippincott
December 17, 2010 Workshop

General Information:

The networking group meets in Hopkinton, at St. John the Evangelist Church parish hall. The meeting occurs, from 10 to 12 noon, and will meet every other Friday. The parish hall has a capacity for 250 people and there is plenty of parking spaces in the parking lot and on the street. Around the perimeter of the parish hall are rooms to allow us to have focused network groups or for any other purpose we need. We chose every other Friday to allow everyone to attend the Acton Networking Group or any other networking group, if they wanted, on the Friday we do not meet.

We will maintain our close affiliation with Acton Networkers by using the same list-server to share information between the groups. Any e-mails specific to the Hopkinton Networking Group (HNG) will be indicated in the subject line either by "Hopkinton Networking Group" or "HNG"; this way anyone attending these meetings will know the e-mail is intended for them.

We will follow the following agenda items:

• Welcome
• Landings (with doughnuts)
• Announcements
• New member introductions
• Needs and Leads
• Speaker(s), Workshop, or Focus Group
• Cleanup

For those new members who give their introductions, this is what we would like to know:

• Name
• Skills and Value Statement
• Where have you been?
• Where are you going?
• Your title
• Your target companies
• Geography of search
• Name and e-mail address

If anyone wants to join our team, please let one of us know; we could always use the extra help and input for ideas.

Directions:
Take Rt. 495 North/South and get off Exit 21A. Go through three traffic lights. Colella's Supermarket is on the right at the third traffic light. The first street after the third traffic light is Church Street, take a right turn. The church is on the right. Go around to the left of the parking lot and go into the side entrance of the parish hall.

Depending upon where you live, perhaps you may want to use Mapquest for a more direct route. The address of the church is:
St. John the Evangelist
20 Church Street
Hopkinton, MA 01748

Regards,
Hopkinton Networkers Group (HNG) Coordinators:

Daren Canfield       daren.canfield@...    

Patricia Centola     patricia.centola@...

Gil Krispien            g.krispien@comcast.net   

William Lam          wmlam508@...

Mario Tardif            mario_tardif@...

Andrea Haber (HNG Coordinator Emeritus; she is employed now)
Christine Hurley (HNG Coordinator Emeritus; she is employed now)
Marilyn Johnson (HNG Coordinator Emeritus; she is employed now)
Laura Nelson (HNG Coordinator Emeritus; she is employed now)
Del Richmond (HNG Coordinator Emeritus; he is employed now)
Diane Shelley (HNG Coordinator Emeritus; she is employed now)
Steve Sherlock (HNG Coordinator Emeritus; he is employed now)
Nancy Spadorcia (HNG Coordinator Emeritus; she is employed now)
Qing Ye (HNG Coordinator Emeritus; she is employed now)
Denise Zazzera (HNG Coordinator Emeritus; she is employed now)

Seesmic for LinkedIn

While Tweetdeck is a good tool for use with Twitter, I found it stops periodically due to API overload but Seesmic doesn't. With my limited time available to tweet, I need a client that will be responsive and not hold me back from accomplishing all I want to in a small amount of time.

Seesmic does that for me and not just for Twitter. The desktop version updates to Facebook and now it has added LinkedIn!

One place, one tool to manage your interactions with your network!




How cool is that?

Get Seesmic here: http://seesmic.com/seesmic_desktop/sd2/

"why not just register for a food registry?"

When Ben Reid and his wife got married, they knew they didn’t need another blender or toaster. And they knew they loved to go out to eat. So Ben and his wife thought, why not just register for a food registry? There had to be one somewhere. Turns out there wasn’t, so they created Foodie Registry. Foodie Registry was a featured startup company at our Tech Cocktail Chicago mixer event this past May.

In Ben's words, he tells how this came to be:





It may sound trite but "just do it" is great advice!

Take charge of your future, it starts today and "just do it"!


Thanks for the tip to this story from the Tech Cocktail blog

Get out and network!

For those in the greater Franklin area, the next week or so provides some good business networking opportunities.

1 - The United Regional Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring the "Taste of the Region" at Tri-County Regional Voc Tech on Tuesday, Oct 26th. You can sample foods from area restaurants and network with businesses.

http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/10/taste-of-region-features-23-food.html

2 - The United Chamber of Commerce is also hosting their Business to Business Expo on Thursday Oct 28th.

http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/10/business-to-business-expo-oct-28.html

3 - The Young Professionals Organization is going bowling on November 9th, You can bowl and network with others in the under 40 crowd!

http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/10/young-professionals-organization-hosts.html

"Chance favors the connected mind"

Yes, I am an 'unconference evangelist'. It is not something I need to go to 'unconference anonymous' to declare: "My name is Steve. I am an unconference evangelist."

I have been part of the organizing committee for at least 19 such events since my first at the PodCamp Boston in Sep 2006. PodCamp Boston 5, Job Search Jam Sessions 2 and PodCamp CT were three such events in the last several weeks. I get pumped by meeting and talking with so many people.

Why do I get pumped up by these events?
I think I summarized it pretty well in this brief video recap that Bruce K Garber did for PodCamp CT. by saying "Facilitate the network and then let the net work!"

I think another way to look at it is to hear Steven Johnson explain "where good ideas come from:" and concludes by saying "Chance favors the connected mind."



Either way, if you have a chance to go to an unconference, I would highly recommend it.

BTW - PodCamp NH is this weekend!

Choose not to go alone

Good day, it is Friday! Not just the end of the work week but the start of the remainder of your life. Yes, the start. You can choose today to take action on your job search. Or not. Your choice.

Julian Smith has a post on the new Escape Velocity blog that talks about choice.

A Note About Choice http://bit.ly/brL62L me: your choice, 'cuz it is yours, makes all the difference! #the5

One of the choices you may make is to leave the area you currently are for another. I know of folks working on that and heard from one yesterday who is moving to Charlotte, NC to actually start a new position there. There are many factors that go into a move. Only you'll will know all the ins/out, pros/cons. Lay them out, talk it over with your family and friends. It is your choice. It just may be a good one.

What Works? Another CH “Alumnus” Speaks Out! http://bit.ly/c8IWYP me: people are finding spots but it is still slow #the5

One of the themes of the recent Job Search Jam Sessions was the power of we as reflected in the lessons of the geese. Participation, actively, not passively in a group works. I know from my own experience, I would not have been as successful in my own search efforts without the help of the group.

The Value of Job Search Support Groups http://bit.ly/bj8p3A me: there is real power in a group #the5

Groups have formed at the recent Job Search Jam Sessions. If you need help forming one, or need help finding one, ask around, or drop me an email.

You don't need to go it alone when you can leverage the power of the group!

Young Professionals Organization Hosts North Bowl Event

United Regional Young Professionals Organization invites you to a night of fun and Cosmic Bowling at North Bowl, 71 E. Washington St., North Attleborough, on Nov. 9, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. $20 per bowler includes two hours of bowling, shoes, pizza and soda. Please bring a non-perishable food item for donation to a local food pantry. Reservations required. Contact Vicky Faunce at 508-223-5218 or vicky.faunce@bcsbmail.com.

The YPO is a branch of The United Regional Chamber of Commerce and is comprised of 20- and 30-something business professionals who have an interest in social and business networking, community involvement, and professional development. YPO participants must be at least 21 years old. 


For more information, visit the YPO's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/unitedregionalypo.

Business is personal

When they say "it is not personal, it is just business" be prepared. Something is up. Get real! All business is personal. That is why the culture of the business matters. That is why people report leaving a job not because of the company but because of their manager.

So why would you use a generic invitation for someone to connect with you on LinkedIn?

Impersonal Network Requests. A generic “I’d like to invite you to join my professional network” request does not create a warm, personal connection or give the receiver any reason to accept your invite. It conveys that you couldn’t be troubled to wrote a sentence or two. Worse, the receiver might not even remember who you are!  Every request should be customized, reminding the receiver of your past connection and a positive association. It only takes a few seconds and goes a long way towards building a strong connection.

Read more of the posting here  http://blog.jobfully.com/2010/10/avoiding-linkedin-faux-pas/

And the next time you connect with someone on LinkedIn, make your request personal. After all it is business!

FINS - new job search sites for Technology, Finance, Sales & Marketing

The Wall Street Journal has expanded their efforts in the job search arena with three topic focused sites.

Technology  http://it-jobs.fins.com/
Finance http://www.fins.com/Finance
Sales & Marketing  http://sales-jobs.fins.com/

I just created an account on the Technology site (for free). They have a Twitter account, a Facebook page and an RSS feed so they seem to be fully social media enabled. They appear to be posting content 2-3 times a day so there might be some good stuff for you.

Consider checking them out. I'll report back what I find in a week or so. If you find anything good or bad, let me know.

How LinkedIn can help your job search

The folks at Position Ignition have a two-part post on 12 Ways your LinkedIn Profile Will Help You get a New Job. The first of the series is here:

http://www.positionignition.com/blog/2010/10/8/12-ways-your-linkedin-profile-will-help-you-get-a-new-job-pa.html

JSJS2: Bob Heiselmeyer's Presentation

Bob Heiselmeyer of the Milford Career Center shared this presentation at the Job Search Jam Sessions to provide an overview of the services offered by the State.

JSJS2 - Presentation from Milford Career Center

JSJS2: Joe Mullin's Presentation

Joe Mullin's LinkedIn presentation can be viewed here or on his profile in LinkedIn.

Enjoy!

Hopkinton Networkers Group (HNG) - Friday, Oct 8

The agenda for this Friday's Hopkinton Networkers Group (HNG) meeting will be featured by a workshop. The facilitator for this week will be Marilyn Johnson. We will devote the first hour, from 10 to 11 AM to the following agenda: Welcome, Landings, Announcements, New Member Intros, and Needs & Leads.

Please arrive early, so we can make every effort to start on time. In the second hour, we will conduct a workshop on Elevator Speeches. Here is how it will be done:

Elevator Speeches:

We will break out into small groups of 6 - 8 people and use the classrooms. Each person will give his / her one-minute elevator speech and receive comments from the rest of the group. This should take 20 - 25 minutes. Then we will gather back into large hall, and based on the comments received earlier, each person will have the option of giving the *improved* elevator speech. This will be excellent practice for when the "real" event occurs.

Schedule for HNG Meetings:

October 8, 2010 - Workshop on Elevator Speeches
October 22, 2010 - Helen Hamilton
November 5, 2010 - Bill Bean
November 19, 2010 - Joellyn Schwerdlin "Overcoming Negative Self-Talk Which Sabotages Job Search Success"
December 3, 2010 -
December 17, 2010 - Workshop


General Information:

The networking group meets in Hopkinton, at St. John the Evangelist Church parish hall. The meeting occurs, from 10 to 12 noon, and will meet every other Friday. The parish hall has a capacity for 250 people and there is plenty of parking spaces in the parking lot and on the street. Around the perimeter of the parish hall are rooms to allow us to have focused network groups or for any other purpose we need. We chose every other Friday to allow everyone to attend the Acton Networking Group or any other networking group, if they wanted, on the Friday we do not meet.

We will maintain our close affiliation with Acton Networkers by using the same list-server to share information between the groups. Any e-mails specific to the Hopkinton Networking Group (HNG) will be indicated in the subject line either by "Hopkinton Networking Group" or "HNG"; this way anyone attending these meetings will know the e-mail is intended for them.

We will follow the following agenda items:
Welcome
Landings (with doughnuts)
Announcements
New member introductions
Needs and Leads
Speaker(s), Workshop, or Focus Group
Cleanup

For those new members who give their introductions, this is what we would like to know:
Name
Skills and Value Statement
Where have you been?
Where are you going?
Your title
Your target companies
Geography of search
Name and e-mail address

If anyone wants to join our team, please let one of us know; we could always use the extra help and input for ideas.

Directions:
Take Rt. 495 North/South and get off Exit 21A. Go through three traffic lights. Colella's Supermarket is on the right at the third traffic light. The first street after the third traffic light is Church Street, take a right turn. The church is on the right. Go around to the left of the parking lot and go into the side entrance of the parish hall.

Depending upon where you live, perhaps you may want to use Mapquest for a more direct route. The address of the church is:
St. John the Evangelist
20 Church Street
Hopkinton, MA 01748

Regards,
Hopkinton Networkers Group (HNG) Coordinators:
Marilyn Johnson
Gil Krispien
Mario Tardif
Denise Zazzera

Success story to share

Lisa participated in the Job Search Jam Sessions last Friday. She took part in one of the interview questions practice workshops that we held throughout the day. She also had an interview scheduled for 3:00 PM that day. She came out of the interview workshop with valuable feedback and ready to go.

At 3:00 PM, just before the sessions started, I announced that she was going for her interview and we gathered to send positive vibes her way (along with a honk or two)!

They may have worked. I heard from from Lisa that the interview not only went well but that Tuesday afternoon, the HR person had called with a job offer. Yes, she accepted and starts Oct 18th!

How about that for learning, sharing, and putting that into practice!

I wish you all the best in your new role Lisa. I am sure you will do well!

Buddy Group - Forming in Newton/Needham/Wellesley area

Karen McIntosh participated last Friday at the Job Search Jam Sessions and heard about 'buddy groups'. She is looking to create one that would meet in Newton, MA:

Buddy Networking Group Starting - Newton/Needham/Wellesley area

I'm looking for people interested in joining a small weekly or bi-monthly structured buddy group limited to no more than 8 people.  Proposed location is Panera Bread, 120 Highland Ave. in Newton, just off Rte. 128/95 Highland Avenue exit. The purpose is to give and receive support in a more focused way and do a deeper dive into issues and requirements needed to land the job you want.  This group is for someone who wants to be accountable to a peer group, support others and be supported meaningfully in their job search, and contribute skills learned along the way.


If you are interested, please contact me at Karen.mcintosh@rcn.com

thanks!


Karen Mcintosh


http://www.linkedin.com/in/karenmcintosh

Why We Created The Career Summit 2010

With the second Job Search Jam Sessions behind us, this looks to be a good virtual event to participate in!

"I simply don't know what to do." Jenny started to cry as I spoke with her about her search for a new career. Her position was about to be eliminated and she was reaching out for help. She was struggling to find someone - anyone - who could empathize with her situation and provide her with some meaningful and actionable advice. Like so many in today's market, Jenny is scared. And I'm scared too. I'm scared that people are being taken advantage of. I'm scared that it's becoming more and more difficult to find quality advice amidst all the noise. I'm scared that the recovery is taking longer than anyone anticipated. But most of all, I'm scared that you don't have a trusted place you can go to help you find a job, keep a job, and thrive in your career.

Rise Above Your Job This is why my partners and I have come together to create the 2010 Career Summit. On your behalf, we've secured twenty of the world's leading career experts. We've worked with them to address the issues that concern you the most - resume writing, the recruiting process, online job search strategies, interviewing techniques, pursuing your passion, finding meaning in your career, and so much more. In recognition that not everyone can afford to travel, we made this a virtual event so you can attend online and on your schedule, with recordings and archives of every single moment so you can come back and listen as your leisure. And because there are other experts who have terrific ideas for you, we've gathered together free e-books, videos and other bonus materials to help you on your journey. We'll also be giving away copies of many of our presenter's books and running special contests that just might change someone's life. As the founder of JobAngels, I'm passionate about making this a cost-effective event so we've done everything possible to bring a ton of value at a very low price. If you want to take control of your career, I'd ask that you register today because our early-bird offer of $99 expires at midnight on Sunday, October 10th. In closing, please know that we created the 2010 Career Summit because you asked us for help. Our mission is to give people like Jenny the tools necessary to move forward in their careers with confidence. I hope you'll join us and I encourage you to write with any questions, concerns or comments. All my best, Mark Stelzner Founder, JobAngels and Co-Founder, The Career Summit  Register Now

Speakers  Jonathan Fields - Keynote Alexandra Levit Alison Doyle Alison Green Anita Bruzzese Heather McGough Jason Seiden Jennifer McClure Jeremy Langhans Laurie Ruettimann Mark Stelzner Mary Ellen Slayter Miriam Salpeter Paula Caligiuri Richard Cho Ryan Paugh Sarah Needleman Susan Joyce Susan Strayer Vickie Elmer Also, check out the agenda.

contact us at info@thecareersummit.com

JobAngels.org, 2400 M St NW, Suite 514, Washington, DC 20037, USA

Financial Report - Oct 1, 2010 event

The 62 participants in the Job Search Jam Sessions 2 held on October 1, 2010 contributed a net total of $25.28 to the St John Evangelist Church after expenses.

Thank you to all the participants and speakers who helped to make Job Search Jam Sessions successful!

The full accounting of the receipts and expenses can be found here:

Job Search Jam Sessions 2 - Financial Report



If there are any questions, please feel free to contact Steve Sherlock, Lead Organizer.

Natasha Bedingfield's Unwritten

The internet connection at the Parish Center prevented playing the video performance of Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten". 

As you listen, the lyrics are so appropriate for what we were doing with the unconference. The lyrics also referenced the rain that occurred on Friday. How did she know?

Reaching for something in the distance

So close you can almost taste it

Release your inhibitions

Feel the rain on your skin

No one else can feel it for you

Only you can let it in

No one else, no one else

Can speak the words on your lips

Drench yourself in words unspoken

Live your life with arms wide open

Today is where your book begins

The rest is still unwritten

For those that participated on Friday, I trust you gain some information and connections to help your job search. The rest is up to you! The rest is unwritten!

Job Search Jam Sessions - Opening

The opening presentation to set the stage for this unconference focusing on the unemployed and under-employed.


Job Search Jam Sessions 2 Opening

Lessons from the Geese

In January 2006, I posted this to the Blog Synergy. I find it very relevant today on the job search.

I found the Lessons of the Geese somewhere along the way (2001/2002) before blogging anyway. Also before rediscovering a piece of it in Gung Ho! by Ken Blanchard, although it was written in 1997, I did not read it until it was referenced by a manager at work as we went through a re-organizational team building activity early in 2003.

Here are the Lessons of the Geese:

In the fall when you see geese heading south for the winter flying along in the "V" formation, you might be interested in knowing what science has discovered about why they fly that way.

As each bird flaps its wings, it creates uplift for the bird immediately following. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own.

Quite similar to people who are part of a team and share a common direction get where they are going quicker and easier, because they are traveling on the trust of one another and lift each other up along the way. Whenever a Goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go through it alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the power of the flock.

If we have as much sense as a Goose, we will stay in formation and share information with those who are headed in the same way that we are going. When the lead Goose gets tired, he rotates back in the wings and another Goose takes over. It pays to share leadership and take turns doing hard jobs.

The Geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep their speed. Words of support and inspiration help energize those on the front line, helping them to keep pace in spite of the day-to-day pressures and fatigue. It is important that our honking be encouraging. Otherwise it's just - well .. honking!

Finally, when a Goose gets sick or is wounded and falls out, two Geese fall out of the formation and follow the injured one down to help and protect him. They stay with him until he is either able to fly or until he is dead, then they launch out with another formation to catch up with their group. When one of us is down, it's up to the others to stand by us in our time of trouble.

If we have the sense of a Goose, we will stand by each other when things get rough we will stay in formation with those headed where we want to go. The next time you see a formation of Geese, remember their message that: "IT IS INDEED A REWARD, A CHALLENGE AND A PRIVILEGE TO BE A CONTRIBUTING MEMBER OF A TEAM"

Author Unknown

Google helped me find a site that actually proves out most of this scientifically as well as identifies the author as Dr. Robert McNeish.

So in the spirit of the geese, Honk! Honk! for Team Synergy  Your Job Searchers.

For a musical rendition of the lessons of the geese, check this out!

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Let's use the lessons of the geese in our job search efforts!

Honk for the goodness that a connection shares with you!

Honk for encouragement of your fellow search who is discouraged!

Honk! Honk!