Songwriters

JibberJobber for Singer/Songwriters Lately Ive run into a number of singer/songwriters who are interested in moving forward in their careers. Ive randomly seen a number of songwriters sign up for JibberJobber (not because of my wifes songwriting journey). Why are these people getting on JibberJobber?  Or, why shouldnt they get on JibberJobber? JibberJobber is a personal relationship management tool.  It is a database that helps you keep track of your relationships. Originally designed for job seekers, JibberJobber helps you keep track or your target companies and your professional contacts (as well as your personal contacts). Does this sound like something a songwriter would need? ABSOLUTELY. In some of the workshops my wife has been to they stress the importance of networking and branding. Songwriters are doing the same things that job seekers need to do. They need to keep track of who they meet. They need to keep track of what they talked about. They need to set up reminders to follow-up with people. They should have a place to store the contact info and relevant links to contacts. They should wordsmith their own 30 second elevator pitch. They should network into companies. All of these are things that JibberJobber offers, and perhaps thats why songwriters are heading over to JibberJobber. Its simply a relationship manager. JibberJobber for Singer/Songwriters Lately Ive run into a number of singer/songwriters who are interested in moving forward in their careers. Ive randomly seen a number of songwriters sign up for JibberJobber (not because of my wifes songwriting journey). Why are these people getting on JibberJobber?  Or, why shouldnt they get on JibberJobber? JibberJobber is a personal relationship management tool.  It is a database that helps you keep track of your relationships. Originally designed for job seekers, JibberJobber helps you keep track or your target companies and your professional contacts (as well as your personal contacts). Does this sound like something a songwriter would need? ABSOLUTELY. In some of the workshops my wife has been to they stress the importance of networking and branding. Songwriters are doing the same things that job seekers need to do. They need to keep track of who they meet. They need to keep track of what they talked about. They need to set up reminders to follow-up with people. They should have a place to store the contact info and relevant links to contacts. They should wordsmith their own 30 second elevator pitch. They should network into companies. All of these are things that JibberJobber offers, and perhaps thats why songwriters are heading over to JibberJobber. Its simply a relationship manager.

5 Ways to Get an Award-Winning Employer Brand on a Budget

5 Ways to Get an Award-Winning Employer Brand on a Budget Employer branding today means so much more than dogs in the office and team photos on social media. Now more than ever companies are realising the importance of employer branding, however there’s a common misconception that a broad HR team and big budgets are required to achieve success and truly stand out. I’m here to tell you this is not the case. You may not have heard of Cox Purtell before. We’re a boutique, family owned recruitment agency in Sydney, Australia with 25 full-time employees. 2017 has been a great year for us. This month our #MakeTheMove employer branding campaign was shortlisted for Best Recruitment Campaign at the 2017 Australian HR Awards. We are the only small business in this category, alongside McDonald’s, PwC, Accenture, Telstra, WSP International Convention Centre Sydney. We didn’t engage a creative agency. We don’t have an HR team. We spent just $5,000AUD to hire 20% of our current workforce. Honestly, we didn’t even know if it was going to work. I’d like to share with you the steps we took to kick-start our largest ever employer branding campaign: 1. Address business needs As an SME recruiter, we identified the need to establish our Employee Value Proposition (EVP) to differentiate ourselves in the competitive recruitment market. Spending a huge amount of money on recruitment fees and with a clear talent shortage in Australia, we wanted to take the opportunity to find new and creative ways to attract experienced recruitment talent from outside the country. In July 2016 we launched our #MakeTheMove campaign to address this talent shortage. The campaign was aimed at attracting recruiters from overseas, showcasing the lifestyle and feeling of working in Sydney for Cox Purtell. When formulating an employer branding strategy, always ensure your goals are clearly linked to your overall business needs so you will have effective, measurable results. 2. Scoping out competitors In our preliminary research, we found that in the process of attracting overseas talent, many Australian recruitment agencies focused on tourist icons such as the Opera House, Harbour Bridge or the beach; but we wanted to address the fact that leaving your friends and family behind to move overseas is a massive, scary, life changing decision. We realised that it’s a huge ask to expect somebody to leave their friends and family behind to come and work for us, so we wanted to honour that with our campaign. By telling honest, raw stories of our own people moving across the world, we would resonate with passive candidates on a deeper level. To inspire action, we needed to make people feel something. Before formulating your creative, first be sure to look at what your similar companies are doing in this space. There is a good chance your direct competitors will be offering similar perks, so try to take a different approach and be a little left of centre. You will be competing for the same candidates, after all. “How will we ever compete with our larger competitors?” It’s not always about competing with the big guys. What can you offer potential employees that larger organisations can’t? At Cox Purtell, we market the fact that we are a supportive, boutique family-owned agency. At the end of the day we are trying to attract recruiters who want to work in this kind of environment, so candidates who are only looking to work for a global brand won’t be the best fit for our small team anyway. 3. The strategy We created powerful, short stories of our people and their journey through music style videos. Our broad strategy was to not only attract recruiters to our company, but also showcase Australia as a great destination for professionals. Human branding is incredibly powerful we believe our people are our best brand ambassadors. Our strategy was focused on projecting a raw and personal representation of our company culture, as well as life in Sydney. We incorporated honest storytelling, increasing the shareability of our content to maximise impact and reach, with a modest budget. Our #MakeTheMove videos tell the stories of Tracy and Imogen who are both expats living in Australia and working for Cox Purtell. Imogen’s story is centred on her move from Ireland to Sydney. Imogen is in her mid-20’s and her video is focused on her friends, fitness and regular contact with her family back home. Tracy’s story is much more family focused as she is married with a son, Daniel. Tracy moved her family to Australia from Johannesburg, South Africa to provide a better life and opportunities for Daniel. Tracy’s video focuses on her husband and son, as well as friends, but most importantly the life that she has been able to provide for her family. The contrast between Imogen and Tracy’s stories is intentional. We wanted to tell two very different stories to appeal to a wider audience. While both videos feature a lot of shots from the office, we wanted to acknowledge that work is not 100% of anyone’s life, and all of these combined factors will make up the viewer’s potential new life in Australia. We executed #MakeTheMove without the use of traditional job boards or sourcing methods, instead distributing our YouTube hosted videos throughout all of our social media channels allowed us to raise awareness and collect applications. We successfully hired 4 recruitment consultants in the first round of #MakeTheMove. 4. Keeping it real All videos were shot on an iPhone, many of them self-filmed by Tracy and Imogen, in an effort to keep campaign costs down, but to also capture authenticity and mimic user-generated content so that viewers could imagine themselves in the videos. The nature of our social media targeting meant that we captured mostly passive, previously untapped job seekers who may have never considered living in Sydney. It is vital to ensure that the message you are projecting is in fact a true reflection of your culture and values. If your people aren’t living and breathing your brand, it will soon become obvious, and the façade will crumble. 5. Keeping it alive On completion of the first round of the campaign, each of our new recruits self-filmed their journey to Australia which we compiled into our final #MakeTheMove video released in March 2017. I’d always hoped the final video would have the most impact as it rounded off the series by telling the stories of real people moving Australia as a result of our campaign. We keep #MakeTheMove ‘alive’ by continuing to keep the narrative flowing on social media through company posts and by leveraging personal social networks of our staff. As a small team, every employee is regarded as a Cox Purtell brand ambassador. Our purpose-built #MakeTheMove page remains on our website so interested candidates can apply at any time. You may find that a surprising amount of activity and interest still occurs after your initial campaign period. Allow for this by ensuring it is always easy for people to get more information or apply directly well after the ‘big push’ of your campaign period has come to an end. I hope sharing some of these strategies can help you punch above your weight, whether you are just starting your EB journey, or executing a targeted EB/Social Recruitment campaign. About the author:  Christina Knock is the Brand Digital Marketing Manager at Cox Purtell Staffing Services.  #MakeTheMove has just been shortlisted for 2 for Global Recruiter APAC Awards: Best Marketing Campaign and Best Use of Social Media.

Dont Be the Fruitcake of the Interview this Holiday Season

Don’t Be the Fruitcake of the Interview this Holiday Season The holidays are a fantastic time to revitalize your career search. As the year comes to a close, businesses are evaluating what their needs are, and with a surplus of charitable events and parties being hosted prospective applicants have new opportunities to network with their dream employers. When attending these festive functions and getting to meet the president or manager of X, Y, Z business, be careful not to be the fruitcake of this informal interview. The definition of a Fruitcake is a cake made with chopped candied fruit and/or dried fruit, nuts, and spices; sometimes soaked in spirits. The cultural understanding of a fruitcake, though, is a very different dessert. Johnny Carson, one time popular host of The Tonight Show, originated the joke that “there really is only one fruitcake in the world, passed from family to family,” due to its unsavoriness. Don’t fall into the career trap of being passed along by your potential employers by attending to these simple lessons learned from America’s most disdained dessert. 1) Don’t be cut from the same cloth be original and interesting: The number one problem with being given a fruitcake as a gift is the communicated lack of thought behind the action. It’s been a holiday tradition for over a century and now it is a cliché as dry as the cake itself. As a prospective employee don’t waste the opportunity to make an impression on your employer by being generic. How many times have you heard someone in an interview listing such skills as “team player”, “self starter”, or “multitasker”? These words are stale and fail to express the passion and expertise you can bring to a company. Success is taking a traditional idea or common practice and improving upon it, showing it in a new light. How about fruitcake mini-muffins? How about telling your prospective employer that instead of simply being a “team player” you are cognizant of the value of collaboration to build creativity and enforce positive office culture, then back it up with an example from your experiences. 2) Dress to impress the party: This advice feels like it should go without saying, but 53% of employers polled by CareerBuilder during the holiday season in 2013, said that job applicants failed to dress appropriately for the interview. That means that more than half of all applicants are showing up to interviews, even informal interviews like a professional party, covered in the fruitcake crumbs. Your appearance is your first message to the world that reveals time management skills, attention to detail, maturity, and responsibility. Humans are visually-fixated creatures, if your appearance is in disarray your employer is going to be distracted and may even be embarrassed to be seen speaking with you. Cue the fruitcake pass along. 3) Know your audience and atmosphere: If your dream is to work for a modern and innovative company like Apple, your potential employer is going to expect you to know everything possible about Apple’s history, products, brand, and corporate executives. When discussing your experiences, make reference to specifics about the company that are in line with your goals and knowledge. For example, Apple projects are all peer-vetted, meaning that their employees present every assignment they are working on to their coworkers for critique before moving forward.  As the prospective employee, knowing this would give you a tip off to emphasize a group pioneering mentality, rather than marking yourself as strictly a soloist. Every company is going to have at least a handful of culture identifiers you should be able to research online, and this will prepare you for the moment when its your turn during the interview to begin asking questions. Without having done your research first you will inevitably put your foot in your mouth, lik e giving a big slice of fruitcake to that potential employer who’s allergic to nuts… Happy holiday hunting to all; may your efforts be fruitful (just not fruitcake)! Author: John Giaimo is President of Software Resources, Inc. an IT Staffing Solutions firm. Founded in 1992, Software Resources is a privately held women-owned business enterprise (WBE).

When You Cant Get Beyond the Interview

When You Cant Get Beyond the Interview It’s a common frustration.  You thought the interview went well. You talked a lot. They nodded. Your resume rocked. They put it in a folder. So,  why aren’t they calling back??? Maybe it’s not the resume or your new interview suit or the fact that you got there precisely 10 minutes early. Maybe it’s you. Maybe you are sending signals that are making it difficult for companies to believe you would have their best interest at heart and represent their brand flawlessly. Run through this list of deal breakers and make sure you aren’t shooting yourself in the foot. • When people talk, do you listen? I’m talking look him in the eye, your body fully facing him kind of listening. People can tell if you are simply giving them face time and your body language will give you away on this one. You can’t keep glancing beyond his shoulder every time someone walks by the door and still appear that you are genuinely interested in what’s happening in the here and now. • Do you walk your own talk? Do you talk about approachability and friendliness yet get short with the interviewer if he fails to bring your resume to the meeting? If so, you are sending mixed signals. Interviewers take every encounter with you and apply it to a business situation to help him decide if he wants to jump in bed â€" figuratively speaking, of course. • Do you have another personality online? Talking smack online and giving off a foreign bravado will catch up with you. Everyone Googles and sites like Facebook and Twitter pay a lot of money to make sure their results show up on the first page. Know that your statuses on social networking sites are viewable to anyone at anytime and this is a cheap way for companies to find out if you are who you say you are. • Do you look like a professional or a chump? Take a good long look at yourself in the mirror before you leave for an interview. If you are rumpled and slovenly, you will have to work double-hard to let your interviewers know that you are detail oriented, a self-starter and motivated towards greatness. It doesn’t have to be a suit, but it does have to fit perfectly and be clean. • Do you know who you’re talking to? Be aware of who is listening to you during the interview. If your counterparts are 50 or 60 years old, cut back on the 20-something vernacular. For example, instead of being “jazzed”, you could be “pleased.” Don’t let your message get lost in the shock over your choice of words. Body language, verbal language and your image are part of the great big pot of gold called interpersonal skills. If you grab hold of these, you can ace any interview with anybody.

Marcs Favorite Episode of 2017 8 Individuals. 8 Career Pivots [Podcast] - Career Pivot

Marc’s Favorite Episode of 2017 8 Individuals. 8 Career Pivots [Podcast] - Career Pivot Episode 59 â€" Marc recaps the career pivots or changes of eight individuals in this repeat episode. Description: Marc introduces the common themes of the eight career changes or pivots recapped in this episode. First, they had an idea and did not act on it. Second, there was a moment or event that vaulted them into action. Third, no matter how well they planned it, things did not turn out as planned, and they needed to adapt as they went along. Marc reviews some of their stories, with clips characterizing the three phases in common. He shares some guest clips for each of the three phases. Listen in for a variety of experiences and tips for pivoting to or changing careers. Download Link |iTunes|Stitcher Radio|Google Podcast|Podbean|TuneIn|Overcast Key Takeaways: [1:08] For the past month, Marc has been running the Repurpose Your Career audience survey on who listens to the podcast, what you like, and what you would like to hear about in the future. Please take the survey at CareerPivot.com/PodcastSurvey. This will redirect you to a SurveyMonkey page. Marc will end the survey on January 8. [1:47] Marc’s audiobook Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life, is available on iTunes, Audible, and Amazon. Please check it out. [1:59] Marc will begin the podcast series format again next week, with an interview of Nancy Collamer, semi-retirement expert and author of Second-Act Careers: 50+ Ways to Profit from Your Passions During Semi-Retirement. Marc really likes this book. [2:20] This episode is coming out a day late due to the New Year’s holiday and is a repeat of Marc’s favorite episodes of 2017. Everybody has been reporting that they like the stories people have been telling. This episode is a compilation of interviews with eight individuals who have repurposed their careers. Listen to the common themes. [3:39] Marc interviewed Dr. Joel Dobbs in Episode 3. Dr. Dobbs was an accomplished pharmaceutical executive. Now he has a portfolio career that includes consulting, teaching, and coaching. He planned this out well. Dr. Dobson noted that his life was half gone, and he was inspired by the book Halftime, to do something different. [6:01] Dr. Dobson took a pause to reflect and sought things that would lead to a new life of significance, to give back. He thought about doing something very different. [8:02] Marc interviewed Mike O’Krent in Episode 7. Mike went from a carpet store to chronicling people’s lives in video interviews with Life Stories Alive. Mike tells how he started chronicling Holocaust survivors’ stories for the Jewish Federation of San Antonio â€" for one project ending in 2000. When it was over, he went back to his carpet sales. [10:36] Marc interviewed Jennifer Winter in Episode 28. Jennifer was VP of Sports Sponsorship for Turner Broadcasting and hated it. Everyone told her how great her job was, so she stayed 21 years. Impending layoffs started her thinking about a change. [14:42] Marc introduces the next phase, vaulting into action, with more from Mike O’Krent. Mike’s business coach had him write a list of items he both enjoyed and did well. As he read the list to the coach, he was directed to reread certain items and lit up with the Holocaust interviews. The coach asked, can you make a business like that? [17:16] Marc interviewed Kay McManus in Episode 32. Kay was a business professional working for technology companies before she was laid off in 2009. Now she is the CEO of Kay-Kan. Kay says being laid off was what moved her to act. It turned out she was able to serve the managers at her past job as a freelancer. Then she went full-time. [21:01] Marc introduces Vicki McCullough of Sequitur Marketing, his guest in Episode 11. Vicki was laid off multiple times and finally decided to be her own boss. She explains how she started. After she tried the job search route to no success, she started contract work in marketing. Then she told herself, this was the time. [22:46] Marc had two guests who made multi-step pivots. Elizabeth Rabaey was Marc’s guest on Episode 20. Elizabeth also helps Marc on the mailbag episodes. Elizabeth worked for an environmental engineering company, on air and water permitting. After multiple pivots, she is a marketing professional for a large mining equipment company. [23:44] Elizabeth networked into a project manager position at a company larger than her first one. Elizabeth got involved in marketing and branding there. After a year, her old company reached out to her for marketing, and she worked for them for three years. [29:59] Towards the end of 2016 Elizabeth was looking on job boards and found a marketing coordinator position for an international company. She went to the company website, applied for the job, and her engineering and marketing backgrounds got her hired very quickly. She works from home, with the possibility of international travel. [32:31] Marc interviewed Thom Singer in Episode 15. Thom was a business development professional who worked for a law firm until the 2009 recession when he was laid off. He then launched his career as a keynote speaker and MC. He had already been speaking on the side, but the layoff motivated him to make this his profession. [33:03] Thom’s background prepared him to train other law firms. But, because of the recession, they stopped hiring outside services. Associations of all kinds still held their meetings, and so keynote speaking became the biggest part of Thom’s business. He was unable to get the rates per speech he needed, and his mortgage didn’t shrink. [34:53] Thom was losing money. The family went through cash reserves and credit cards. In a few years he caught up to his previous salary, but then had to work off three years of debt. In six and a half years he was at a stable level. A bad quarter still makes him nervous, but then the next quarter is fine. [35:49] Marc interviewed Mike Martin in Episode 24. Mike spent most of his career in industrial sales, but that career sputtered out. Mike shares his multi-step pivots, from teaching school, to driving trains, to being a drone pilot instructor. [38:02] Mike got his teaching certification just as massive teacher layoffs hit Texas. So he finished his bachelor’s degree in aviation. He took a job at a small airport, but didn’t like it, so he looked at other transportation, and found an opening as a train operator in Texas. He passed the test, aced the interview, and was sent to train operator school. [39:58] Mike got an RV, and parked it at an RV resort near the train school. In 10 weeks he had a certificate, and was assigned to wash trains until a route came up. He got an assignment to burn in new trains, with their computer systems. Then he started testing the signal systems on a new route. When the new route opened, he ran the PR train. [42:01] With the new line open, and new confidence from training operators, he returned home. When he looked around, he saw activity in the drone world, and that’s where he landed. He took 25 hours of training, and started training others to fly, for Dart Drones. He could not have planned his career path, and made corrections on the way. [45:18] Mike encourages career pivoters to pursue their dreams and never give up. The first avenue might not work out. Work the industry deep and wide. [45:48] Marc’s final words: Please listen to the episodes of the interviews that resonated with you. Please take the Repurpose Your Career podcast audience survey at CareerPivot.com/podcastsurvey. Please pick up a copy of Marc’s book, and write an honest review on Amazon.com. The audiobook is now on iTunes, Audible, and Amazon. [46:49] The website for the Career Pivot Community website is live. Marc is contacting people who are on the waiting list. To join the list go to CareerPivot.com/community. Sign up to receive more information about the community as it evolves. Mentioned in This Episode: Careerpivot.com Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life, by Marc Miller and Susan Lahey The paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats are available now. Second-Act Careers: 50+ Ways to Profit from Your Passions During Semi-Retirement, by Nancy Collamer Show Notes at Careerpivot.com/repurpose-career-podcast Dr. Joel Dobbs, Episode 3 Halftime: Moving from Success to Significance, by Bob P. Buford Mike O’Krent, Episode 7 Jennifer Winter, Episode 28 Kay McManus, Episode 32 Vicki McCullough, Episode 11 Elizabeth Rabaey, Episode 20 Mike Martin, Episode 24 Thom Singer, Episode 15 Please take Marc’s survey at CareerPivot.com/PodcastSurvey. This will redirect you to a SurveyMonkey page. Marc will keep the survey going through 2017 to hear from you. Taking the survey will help Marc to select Repurpose Your Career topics for 2018. Please pick up a copy of Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life, by Marc Miller and Susan Lahey. The paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats are available now. When you have completed reading the book, Marc would very much appreciate your leaving an honest review on Amazon.com. Marc has a prototype running of the paid membership community of the CareerPivot.com website. Marc has an initial cohort of 10 members helping him. Marc has opened a waitlist. Sign up at CareerPivot.com/Community. Please take a moment â€" go to iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play. Give this podcast an honest review and subscribe! If you’re not sure how to leave a review, please go to CareerPivot.com/review, and read the detailed instructions there. Contact Marc, and ask questions at Careerpivot.com/contact-me CareerPivot.com/Episode-59 Show Notes for this episode. You can find Show Notes at Careerpivot.com/repurpose-career-podcast. To subscribe from an iPhone: CareerPivot.com/iTunes To subscribe from an Android: CareerPivot.com/Android Twitter: @CareerPivot LinkedIn: Marc Miller Facebook: Career Pivot CareerPivot.com/ryc-resources Careerpivot.com Marc Miller Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above. Like What You Read? Get Career Pivot Insights! 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5 Ways to Not Burn Your Bridges at Past Jobs - CareerEnlightenment.com

Employees who are leaving a position should make an effort to maintain a connection with their former employers. One way to maintain these connections without much effort is through the use of blogs and social media websites.When transitioning out of an old job, employees should not make derogatory or rude comments to their former employers.Employees should never use a blog or social media website to announce a resignation before informing the company. Instead, an employee should submit a polite letter to the employer or speak with him in person.Employees should incorporate  positive comments  about former employers into their resignation letters, as well as any blog posts that discuss the transition. Thanking former employers for the opportunities they provided helps to ensure that connection between the former employer and employee remains intact even after the job ends.Few people will remain in the same job throughout their careers, and the current job market is more competitive t han ever before. To achieve success in this market, individuals need to develop and maintain as many professional connections as possible. By using social media to continue a positive relationship with former employers, individuals can avoid burning bridges that may be useful to them in the future.About the author:  Melissa Crossman is a professional writer who lives in Indiana with her husband and two children. She writes on behalf of  www.coloradotech.edu, specializing in education and career guidance topics.

What You Need To Know About Resume Writing In 22602

What You Need To Know About Resume Writing In 22602Although resume writing is no longer required, it is still a vital component of your job search. When you write a resume, you should always try to remember that this document can help you land a job and also lead to an interview with your potential employer.A good resume should make the employer want to hear from you. You need to convince him that you are the right person for the job and the position that you are applying for. It is important that you showcase your talents and skills, as well as demonstrate to him that you can be trusted with his/her business.If you were to look at all the resumes that you see, most of them have the same approach: you just want a job. While this is fine if you're applying for a job that you have the skills to do, you should always try to get a job that you're interested in. You might even change jobs, but not for the reason that you wanted more money. Because this is bad form and you will be seen as a flake.A good resume should have one single objective. It should have a specific goal in mind. It should also contain the qualifications and information about your performance in the past. Keep in mind that the main purpose of your resume is to give the employer a very specific idea of who you are and what you can bring to the company.In a lot of cases, employers are looking for specific qualities about you. These are the reasons why you need to make sure that your resume focuses on your strengths and why you should have the skills and experience that you have. This means that it will focus on the strengths that you have and highlight what you can bring to the company.It is also important that you come up with an objective when you are writing your resume. You should always have a clear vision about how your career is going to be and how you can achieve it. Keep in mind that you don't want your resume to be too short or too long. Keep it to two pages and have the last page which li sts all your accomplishments.Make sure that you have included all the things that you have completed within the past year, in terms of work experience. Also, make sure that you include your education, achievements, and goals. If you have children or are expecting, you might want to add that as well.Keep in mind that when you are writing your resume, it should highlight everything that you have achieved. The resume should tell the employer exactly what you are capable of. With these tips, you should have no problem writing a good resume.