January 2010 Archives

Next time you apply for a job, the hiring manager is going to Google your name and see what she finds. Do you know what people say about you? About things you've written? You should.

Google Alerts is a fantastic little tool that I don't hear people talk about enough. Google Alerts lets you enter a Google search once, and Google will update you whenever the Googlebot finds new matches for your search, often within only an hour or two of the page's publication.

The most obvious Alert search is your name, as a phrase in double quotes, but that's just the start. Here are some more ideas:

• Your name ("Andy Lester")
• Your nick ("petdance")
• Your email address ("andy@theworkinggeek.com")
• Your company's name
• Resumes related to your job market in your area of expertise (I have an alert for "resume Perl Chicago" (but without the quotes)
• Titles from blog postings you've made
• Links to specific blog postings you've made using the link: syntax

Keep an eye on the results. It's not vanity, it's understanding your personal brand.

For more of my suggestions of how to improve your working life in 2010, see the January 2010 issue of PragPub magazine. It's a free download in three different electronic formats: PDF, ePub and mobi.

These links are collected from The Working Geek's Twitter feed. If you have suggestions for news bits, please mail me at andy@theworkinggeek.com.

• A great question to ask in your job interview (askamanager.blogspot.com)
• Webcast of @berkun's talk Confessions of a Public Speaker available (oreillynet.com)
• Yet another tale of how being a jerk works against you in the working world (askamanager.blogspot.com)
• Laurie Ruettimann digs up the issue of the privacy of your salary history. Again. Read and decide yourself. (punkrockhr.com)
• What everyone with a job can learn from Groucho Marx (sethgodin.typepad.com)

On January 21st, 2010 at 6pm, I'll be presenting my talk "Effective Job Interviewing From Both Sides of the Desk" at a Chicago Nerd Social Club meeting.

The meeting is at OfficePort Chicago, 9 W. Washington, Chicago, IL. Doors open at 5:30pm, and I'll be presenting at 6pm. Afterwards they are hosting a Tech Thursday meetup for socializing and drinks.

One lucky attendee will win a free copy, either electronic or paper, of my book Land The Tech Job You Love.

I hope to see you there!

About my presentation

Interviews have too long been treated like interrogations, probing and testing candidates like they were fruit at a grocer. Effective interviewing reframes the interview as what it really is: the candidate’s first day on the job.

For job-seekers, topics include:

• How to prepare an effective portfolio that says more than words about your skills.
• Your primary goal at the interview.
• Using the power of stories to tell what self-description cannot.
• Understanding the process through the interviewer’s eyes.
• How to turn the interview into a working meeting.
• Five dreaded questions you must be able to answer, and how to answer them without fear.

For managers, you’ll learn:

• Effective pre-interview research
• How to increase your chances of choosing the best candidate.
• Increase your odds in judging cultural fit.
• Why you must ask the dreaded questions like “Where do you want to be in five years,” and how to ask them without asking them.