The Lounge

The 15th annual PricewaterhouseCoopers' annual Global CEO survey revealed that 50% of CEOs indicated recruiting and retaining high potential middle managers" was their chief "talent" challenge.  Considering the drastic economic, technological, and cultural disruption evolving before our eyes, having the talent to adapt and lead organizations into the future is a critical component to any organization who wants to thrive where other institutions struggle.  

CEOs were very specific when indicating their talent constraint issues.  Some of the highlights from page 20 of the hyperlinked report are as follows:

• 31 percent "weren't able to innovate effectively"
• 29 percent "were unable to pursue a market opportunity"
• 24 percent "cancelled or delayed a key strategic initiative"

Employee development doesn't happen when organizations "hope" or wish it to manifest; it happens when organizations make employee development a major part of their strategic objectives.  Institutions who figure out that nurturing a knowledgeable, highly adaptable talent culture is the key to making flexibility and organizational agility competitive advantages in the marketplace will lead the future.  

Digital Darwinism

Brian Solis, new media expert and best selling author, has observed what he refers to as Digital Darwinism, when society and technology evolve faster than the ability to adapt. Certainly, businesses are struggling to adapt but what about Career Professionals?

Social Media has Changed Everything

Web 2.0, social media, mobile technologies, and the ability to analyze massive amounts of new data to discover new correlations, patterns, and insights have fundamentally changed business.  Certainly, these examples have had a huge impact on society as evidenced by the growing amount of people who have access to the internet, engage on social media platforms, and make decisions based on their circles of influence online.  Businesses now have listening command centers to monitor social media channels and jobs such as Community Manager and Social Media Specialist now exist when they didn’t just a few years ago. Consider how consumers now make decisions when searching product reviews on Yelp, Amazon, or Trip Advisor or when they toss up a question on Twitter or Facebook asking for others’ opinions.

Have Career Professionals Been Able to Keep up with the Pace of Change?

Employment Screening Services (ESR) listed social media background screening as the 3rd top trend for 2012 on their list of 10.  Data from multiple surveys from SHRM and Jobvite show a rise in employer use of social media in their recruiting strategies.  LinkedIn is the most referenced social media platform among career professionals when discussing social media’s impact on career development but it is merely representative of a growing number of new tools from infographic resume tools to sites like Glassdoor that allow people to share their experience interviewing with companies.  The boom in technology has disrupted “normal” protocols in hiring, job search, recruiting, employer research, employment screening, personal branding, and a number of other aspects of career development.  How does Digital Darwinism effect the career professional?  Have career professionals adapted or is society and technology moving too fast?  Please share your thoughts.

Key Initiatives of NASASPS: Interview with John Ware

John Ware, President of The National Association of State Administrators and Supervisors of Private Schools (NASASPS), joined Aimee Sirmon to discuss key goals and initiatives of the organization - all with the focus of promoting effective state regulation in our sector of higher education. Thank you John!

Are you a Compliance Thought Leader who would like to be interviewed to contribute to the Compliance Journey group? Contact Robert Starks Jr. at roberts@maxknowledge.com

Compliance as a Quality Improvement Tool: Interview with Lowell Frame

Lowell Frame, Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Harrison College joined Aimee Sirmon to discuss compliance as a quality improvement tool - strategies that are being used successfully at Harrison College, particularly related to faculty. 

Are you a Compliance Thought Leader who would like to be interviewed to contribute to the Compliance Journey group? Contact Robert Starks Jr. at roberts@maxknowledge.com

The Importance of Outcomes, Part 1: Interview with Betty Demers

The 1st of a 2 part interview with Betty Demers, Vice President of Educational Services with Delta Career Education Corporation. She shares her perspectives on the outcomes and performance measures in which colleges should focus, and why they are so important. Special thanks to Betty for her patience as we encountered internet snags during the interview.

Are you a Compliance Thought Leader who would like to be interviewed to contribute to the Compliance Journey group? Contact Robert Starks Jr. at roberts@maxknowledge.com.

Watch Part 2

The Importance of Outcomes, Part 2: Interview with Betty Demers

Betty Demers, Vice President of Educational Services with Delta Career Education Corporation joins Aimee Sirmon in this part 2 interview to discuss outcomes and performance measures - including who is involved in determining what outcomes to measure, and how to measure them. Betty also shares some of Delta's best practices to monitor and improve outcomes. Special thanks again to Betty for her patience as we encountered a few internet snags.

Are you a Compliance Thought Leader who would like to be interviewed to contribute to the Compliance Journey group? Contact Robert Starks Jr. at roberts@maxknowledge.com.

Online Requisite Admissions training in the State of Ohio: Interview with John Ware

John Ware, Executive Director of The Ohio State Board of Career Colleges and Schools, met with Aimee Sirmon to discuss a new training requirement for admissions representatives in Ohio - an online course that covers important rules and regulations set forth by the Board.

Are you a Compliance Thought Leader who would like to be interviewed to contribute to the Compliance Journey Group? Contact Robert Starks Jr. at roberts@maxknowledge.com.

Do job seekers enjoy spending hours researching job openings, completing online applications, and emailing their resume to countless employers only to never get a response?  This process is analagous to the old-fashioned sales mentality that if you knock on enough doors giving your pitch, you’re bound to get a sale.  No one likes it, yet so many job seekers conduct their search this way.  Wouldn’t it be great if the jobs found you?

The Reverse Job Search

The reverse job search describes the process of marketing one’s talents, skills, achievements, qualities, and reputation to a target audience so that those with the jobs you want are seeking you out.  Whereas personal branding is the strategic process of distinguishing one’s self from others by building value, reverse job seeking takes that personal brand and positions it to be seen where opportunity is likely lurking.  Thus, it is less about building a brand and more about getting it seen by the right audience who has the need for what one’s brand offers.

When do you Reverse Job Search?

Ironically, reverse job seeking isn’t something you do when you are unemployed; it’s something you always do so that in the event you become unemployed, you have plenty of people who would love to recommend you because they have become very familiar with your brand.  For job seekers stuck practicing the same old ways to look for jobs, it is difficult to believe that employers would spend time looking for them.  However, employers are beginning to realize that the most qualified candidates are usually candidates from whom they are unlikely to get a resume submission.  Why?

The Passive Seaker

Often, the most qualified candidates for employers are people already working in a similar position; the passive seeker.  Passive seeker is a term that describes the individual who is happy where they work but who is open to exploring new opportunities that present themself.  This is why LinkedIn has become so popular and why recruiting through LinkedIn has increased dramatically.  Social media has facilitated a way for the reverse job seeker to promote their brand continuously and with targeted precision.  The reverse job search requires job seekers to become marketing managers of their own personal brand with an expertise in ad placement to get their brand noticed.  The key to the reverse job search is to get active where one’s brand will get noticed.  Penelope Trunk, co-founder of Brazen Careerist, says, “We should not limit our potential by what someone has chosen to pay us to do. We should limit our potential by what we can think to do.”  We all have had impressive accomplishments in and outside of our jobs, but do the right people know about our accomplishments?  If they don’t, we have ourselves to blame because it is no one else’s responsibility but our own to market ourselves.  Blogger, Jon Bischke, explained what he called the reputation graph, as the perception people have of those they know.  While the reputation graph represents what people think of those they know, the reverse job search leverages the strength of one’s reputation graph.

The original post of this blog is at http://bit.ly/HwcF6S. 

What is a Listening Post?

A listening post is simply an automated method of monitoring what is published on the web.  The web is full of content and to filter the noise from the news, listening posts are excellent tools that save time while monitoring relevant information.  Automating your job search with listening posts can help you stay informed quickly and efficiently but whether or not you are currently seeking a job, I highly recommend that you always use listening posts to monitor the market.  Why?

Why Should I Monitor What is Published on the Web?

Massive amounts of data get published to the web daily.  If you take your own professional development seriously, you should constantly stay informed so you can adjust to market trends and remain relevant.  You may be very happy where you are working currently but if you don’t monitor the market, you may miss an opportunity to apply to your dream job simply because you never knew about it.  Moreover, monitoring the job market helps you learn of market trends, employer expectations, and jobs you didn’t even know existed.  This can all seem overwhelming unless this information gathering is broken up into small, focused components over time.  This is where listening posts can help you.  Listening posts are a curation technique allowing you to curate relevant content from which to learn and share with your network.  Listening posts should also be established to help you monitor your own brand.

How Do I Set Up Listening Posts?

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a means to publish frequently updated content.  Many job search engines provide an RSS feed option that allows you to automate a specific search.  Here are a few different types of listening posts:

10 Listening Posts to Monitor the Web

• Indeed – Automate a job search for your area in any industry
• Simplyhired – Automate a job search for your area in any industry
• oDesk – Automate a search for contract work
• jobchangenotifier.com – Get email alerts when LinkedIn connections change jobs.
• Careernotify.com – Automatically monitor when friends’ job titles change on Facebook
• Changedetection.com – Monitor a company web page for changes such as when they change employment listings.
• Yotify.com – Monitor online classifieds for new job postings
• Twilert – Monitor the Twitter stream
• TweetBeep – Monitor the Twitter stream
• Google Alerts – If you don’t know about this one, god help you! Monitor what is published on the web using search terms.

Do you have a listening post you like?  Please leave a comment and share it here for readers!