Thoughts about the Future

February 7, 2012

In addition to Butterfly Careers, for the past few months I worked for a public grantmaker.  For many reasons, which I will spare you, the position was not a great fit for me. I decided to leave the position on my own accord. However, the experience has gotten me thinking a lot about what makes a work culture appealing?

I just read a couple of articles I found particularly interesting. One highlights, Workplace Trends to Watch in 2012. Upon reading this list, I realized how few of these trends had been adopted at my previous employer and I realized how these trends can really contribute to creating a more satisfying work culture. Food for thought.

Second, I have been hearing alot about the website, Pinterest. I hadn’t given it much thought but stumbled upon this article, How Pinterest is Becoming the Next Big Thing in Social Media for Business. The landscape of social media is continuing to shift so quickly. I find it helpful when anyone can shed some light on why a new technology can be useful to business or individuals.

I hope these articles provide some perspective to you.

Back to the Books

September 2, 2011

It’s actually September and everyone is heading Back to School. In the spirit of new beginnings, I want to share a couple of resources that could prove quite useful for your job search.  The first is a link from ResumeBear’s 50 Best Books for the Unemployed.  This is an extensive list of books that vary from the practical to the motivational. Even if you are not currently unemployed, you may want to check out the list as there are a number of useful titles worth reading on topics such as Job Hunting, and Networking too.

Second, I wanted to share a link to Steve Job’s commencement speech made in 2005 at Stanford University. Since he announced his decision to step down from his leadership role as CEO of Apple, this speech has been making the rounds on twitter, facebook, etc. I found it to be very interesting and thought provoking. It is good advice to keep in mind as you pursue a job search and consider your options.

Social Media ~ What’s In It for You

June 30, 2011

Yesterday I attended the “SocialMedia4Nonprofits” Conference in San Francisco. This all day event brought together an interesting cross section of nonprofit professionals and luminaries from the social media field. While most of the content shared was geared to organizations with recommendations on how to optimize and utilize social media tools, many of the recommendations and resources are relevant to individuals.

In today’s connected world, I am a fan of any kind of social media tool that saves you time and energy while simultaneously helping you learn and grow professionally. Here are a few resources I learned about that I hope will be helpful to you.

Website Resources for Curating Content (for your blog, twitter or facebook accounts):

• StumbleUpon.com
• SmartBrief.com
• Alltop.com
• Scoop.It
• flickr.com – free photos (as long as you give attribution to the artist)

Resources to help Manage Twitter

• Hootsuite
• CoTweet
• Tweetriver
• Hibari
• Packrati.us – twitter + delicious, allows you to bookmark links in twitter

There were also a lot of great resources shared around fundraising, advocacy, getting your story to go “viral” and much more. I encourage you to check out the twitter stream from the event under: #sm4np  to see lots of additional information and links that might be helpful. Enjoy.

New Job Due Diligence is Always in Season

The new year is upon us! Traditionally, it’s a time to take stock of your life which usually includes your current job. Perhaps it’s time to consider taking on a new career challenge.  In your desire to seek greener pastures, remember the saying, “buyer beware.” While the prospect of jumping to a new position may be appealing, I would just caution folks to complete your Due Diligence. The economic climate is still relatively chilly, so if you leave your job for another opportunity without doing your homework and find yourself unhappy, you could be in for a tough time.

Don’t be left out in the cold. I suggest you read Donna Svei’s comprehensive blogpost on Avid Careerist about job search due diligence, 10 Due Diligence Steps to Take Before You Say Yes to a Job Offer, and leave your old job certain that you are making a change for the better!

Using Social Media to Job Hunt

It seems everyone is talking about social media these days, and the number of resources online is quite overwhelming. However, as a job seeker you will want to be aware of at least some of these to maximize your job search efforts.

Whether its Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, SimplyHired, or YouTube, the main thing is to determine what you’re comfortable with using. Then figure out how much time a day  you want to dedicate to participating in social media.

Toward that end, here’s an incredibly useful post from NewGradLife:  Job Hunting with Social Media 101. Please keep in mind the intended audience is new grads so be a little forgiving about the section that talks about party photos on Facebook. But read it in its entirety as there are a number of interesting resources detailed here.