This Brand That's Called YOU

Several years ago when I started out giving talks to the public and college students on how resumes should be written, I never failed to start off by telling my audience that whether they like it or not, everyone of us is in sales and marketing, and their resume should be that document that would sell or market the writer.

You should have seen the jolt of realisation in their eyes whenever I mentioned it. Nobody had thought of themselves in that way. To them, the resume is just a piece of necessary evil that they had to write and send to employers when they search for jobs.

But no, I've been telling them. The resume is much more than that. Aren't you attempting to get the employer to read about your skills and qualification? Aren't you trying to persuade the employer to call you for an interview? Isn't all these an effort to market yourself favourably in the employer's eyes?

Once this realisation sets in, my audience would become more receptive to the reasons why a resume should be properly written to highlight the job seeker's strengths, abilities and how his skills and qualifications can be matched closely to the employer's needs and requirements.

Let me take this concept of selling and marketing oneself one step further by borrowing a term: personal branding. Personal branding is how you build your reputation and image. Branding yourself well so that you become marketable.

To quote Tom Peters, a big Guru of personal branding, this is the Age of the Individual where you have to be your own brand. He says all of us are the CEOs of our own companies, Me Inc. Whatever business you do, your most important job is to be the head marketer of the brand that's call YOU.

But branding yourself successfully cannot be an overnight phenomenon. Building a positive personal brand takes time and the sooner you can start with this, the quicker you have a head start in your career and professional life.

Likewise, when you are searching for a job or looking for opportunities, you have to create and reinforce your positive personal career brand. Let it be known to employers or business partners that your personal career brand is in tune and in sync with their business objectives.

So you have to build your own reputation and build your own image. Personal career branding starts from the minute that you write your resume and it continues right through the interview process and your eventual employment. It doesn't stop. If you want prospective employers to look at you favourably, you must retain this positive image in their minds and never let any issue cloud their pre-judgment of you. That's how important personal career branding is today.

Related Article:
Pre-interview communication

Originally posted by SS Quah on Wednesday, 23 January 2008 at http://blog.jobstreet.com/

Alexa: JobStreet.com is the No.1 Job Site in the Philippines

According to Alexa.com, JobStreet.com is the only job portal in the top 100 most popular web sites in the Philippines, making it the leading job site in the country in terms of popularity. Currently ranked 33rd among the country’s top web sites, it is joined by social networking sites like Friendster, Multiply and Facebook, search engines Yahoo and Google, e-commerce sites Ebay.ph and Amazon.com, online media outlets Inquirer.net, GMANewsTV and PhilStar.com, as well as gaming sites LevelUpGames and E-games. Information sites such as Wikipedia and Internet Movie Database as well as image and video publishing sites like Photobucket and YouTube also continue to be popular among Filipinos. Filipinos mainly visit web sites to be entertained or to socialize, but when they look for jobs, their online destination is JobStreet.com.

A similar trend is reflected by the increase of JobStreet.com’s registered user base and website hits. “We started 2007 with 1 Million registered users.” shares Ritchie Ramos, JobStreet.com’s Marketing Manager. “We ended the year with over 1.4 Million registered users and 12 Million average monthly page views. This clearly shows that more and more Filipinos are turning to the Internet for their job search.”

According to Ramos, JobStreet.com’s popularity can be credited to the quantity and quality of jobs that it features. Job postings on the site has numbered to over 12,000 and continues to grow. Featured employers include top companies such as Microsoft, Shell and Coca Cola, as well as Business Process Outsourcing Companies (BPO) such as Convergys, Accenture, Teletech and Telus.

JobStreet.com continues to build on its successes by introducing new services to its registered jobseekers. In August last year, it launched Career Blast, the first speed-hiring event patterned after speed-dating services. The event provided participating employers and jobseekers an opportunity to quickly find great potential matches. In November, it launched BPO Avenue, a comprehensive online career resource for jobseekers aiming to join the BPO industry.

Alexa.com is a website that provides information on the web traffic of other websites by collecting information from Internet users who installed the Alexa Toolbar. It computes the sites’ number of web users and page views over time to generate rankings.

Posted by blogadmin on Monday, 21 January 2008 at http://blog.jobstreet.com/

Forbes: Turning Classifieds into cash

We have a story from Forbes.com which we'd like to share with you.

It traces the JobStreet.com story from our early days but essentially, it's a story about JobStreet.com founder and CEO, Mark Chang, as his steps are traced through the dot.com boom and bust period and the trials and tribulations he faced.

The Forbes article is both fascinating and absorbing. You can read it for yourself here. Fully recommended.

Originally posted by blogadmin on Friday, 18 January 2008 at http://blog.jobstreet.com/

Pre-interview Communication

Everybody loves a new job, especially one that brings along extra benefits and perks. But landing a new job often requires a lot of preparation from the job seeker, one that starts with the job applications and ends with the job confirmation.

In between, there is always the job interview.

Many people think that they need to create a good image of themselves only at the job interviews. That's not totally correct. You can go one step better by creating a positive impression of yourself BEFORE the job interview.

How can you achieve this impression that will make your prospective employer more at ease or comfortable with you before an interview?

Simple. Maintain an on-going communication with the employers. Don't ever break this communication chain. Employers will always assume that you will attend their interview when they call you. After all, that's why you sent in your job application in the first place, right? They believe in your interest and they expect that you would want to turn up to be interviewed. So it should be only natural that we reciprocate the employer's belief in us. We'll turn up for the interview on the designated day and time.

But there may be times that we cannot be present. Reasons are many and varied but in such circumstances, what should we do to keep up our communication with the employer? Just phone and inform them sincerely that you cannot come. Perhaps there is another date that can be arranged.

It's this way that we maintain a good networking and professional relationship with the people around us. We make them trust us enough. Who knows, the next time around, should you still be interested in a position in that same company, they'll not think of you as rude. Or immature. Or lacking in communication skills. Often, they may yet keep their interview doors open for you.

That is what you should aim at.

Originally posted by SS Quah on Tuesday, 08 January 2008 at http://blog.jobstreet.com/

Fancy Being a Chief Beer Officer?

I was surfing the Internet today and I came across a most unlikely position that you may find advertised: that of a Chief Beer Officer (CBO).

That's right, you didn't read it wrong. A Chief Beer Officer.

At the start of 2007, Sheraton's Four Points hotel chain had been looking for someone to fill this part-time position. An advertisement was placed in several United States newspapers but somehow, word got around on the Internet and the hotel received about 7,800 applications from people in at least 30 countries.

Applications were received from self-proclaimed beer snobs, certified beer judges, beer journalists and hundreds who have travelled the globe in search of the world's best brews.

Would you qualify as a CBO yourself? First, without question, the job would involve drinking plenty of beer. Then, for the successful CBO, he would be needed to be the "official beer ambassador at select microbrewery tours and national beer festivals, and on barstools across the country." A dream job for many pub crawlers.

I wouldn't mind applying for this job myself but sadly, it has already been filled.

A bloke named Scott Kerkmans beat me to it by 10 months. As CBO, his perks include free beer delivered to his door. "I think I've made a lot of people jealous" with this new job, Kerksman said. Lucky devil, you!

Originally posted by SS Quah on Thursday, 03 January 2008 at http://blog.jobstreet.com

How to Get Promoted: Nine Obvious and Not Often Practiced Tips

It would be safe to say that you would have probably entertained the question of how to get promoted even before you graduated or left school.

Long Yun Siang, the head of a department in a multinational advertising agency in Malaysia, says that he is often asked this question by juniors in his industry. These experiences pushed him to pen nine obvious but often not practised tips on how to get promoted.

He recommends making them part of your career plan and before you know it, you would have moved up to the next level. However, a main reason for people to ignore these obvious practices is because they seem very long term. But Long thinks otherwise. All you need to do is to consistently DO them.

To read about his tips, click here.

Originally posted by blogadmin on Friday, 04 January 2008 at 11:38 AM at http://blog.jobstreet.com/

Get your next job match in Facebook!

You have probably caught the Facebook bug by now - the hugely popular and addictive social networking site.

We've just developed a couple of Facebook Applications - now you can get your perfect job matches (from LiNa - your personal job agent) or do a job-search right from your Facebook account.

Just type in "JobStreet" on the search box in Facebook - you'll see two Applications listed. Just click "Add Applications" as usual and tell your friends about it too!

Try it out and let us know what you think - tell us about your ideas on how to make it more useful!

Here's wishing everyone a rewarding and purposeful 2008 ahead.

Cheers from the JobStreet.com team.

Originally posted by Wee Khang Teoh on Monday, 31 December 2007 at http://blog.jobstreet.com/

New Year Greetings from Us to You

Hi, welcome to 2008. Just a few short words to cap off Year 2007.

We'd like to thank you for your continued trust in JobStreet.com as your career partner. We are happy to share with you that we are now in eight countries, with Japan being the latest in our JobStreet.com family. We also got recognized by Forbes Asia in their list of 'Best Under a Billion companies'!

As we look forward to this year, we are inspired to work harder at Improving Lives Through Better Careers throughout the whole region. With more than 30,000 jobs posted regionally at any given time, we commit to giving you MORE CHOICES and BETTER CHANCES in your job hunting.

Again, thank you and we wish you a very Happy New Year! May 2008 be a very productive year for you and all of us!

Warmest wishes from LiNa and the staff at JobStreet.com

Posted by blogadmin on Tuesday, 01 January 2008 at http://blog.jobstreet.com/

Time to rev up your career in 2008

Hi. So how have your Christmas holidays been like? There's nothing like taking off at the end of the year for some seasonal revelry, enjoying the company of your loved ones and charging your batteries in the process before looking ahead to the new year.

But even as you wave off the old year and welcome in the new, it should be the time that you also think about how you can rev up your career next year.

Take some time off from your holidays - or your work - to look at your achievements in 2007. Have you done anything special that you can count on with pride? Saved some money for your company? Improved on some processes? Made life easier for your supervisors, peers or subordinates? Received a promotion or a commendation?

If you have, it is time that you should update your resume to show off these achievements. Don't leave them out from your resume. Update it now, while the achievements are still fresh in your mind. Treat it as a new year resolution that you will do just that, won't you?

Cheers!

Originally posted by SS Quah on Thursday, 27 December 2007 at http://blog.jobstreet.com/