March Career Madness: A Round-Up of Advice from Job Search Experts

Is your job search is becoming a twisted version of the NCAA "big dance"?

Do you find yourself applying to 64 opportunities before making it to the "final four" candidates for a position?

In the process of beginning a sudden job search? Feeling stuck? Need to get "back in the game" with your career? Don’t despair…the time has come for a new kind of office pool.

Introducing the Twitter Invitational, otherwise known as “March Career Madness.”

This event, which will run throughout the month of March, is a joint effort of a team of career experts who have committed to sharing their wit and wisdom with us in “tweets” of 140 characters or less on Twitter. Posts will be written on a singular theme--innovative strategies for your career.

All posts will include the following code: #mcm (referred to in the Twitterverse as a hashtag)

You can follow March Career Madness through Twitter Search (search #mcm) or by following the tweets of individual contributors (name and user “handles” listed at the bottom of this post). Share posts with others by “Retweeting."

New to Twitter?

If you’ve been meaning to try Twitter, this is a great time to start—and a safe place for watching experienced users interact and share knowledge before you dive in as an active user. A word of caution: Keep in mind that Twitter is a searchable public forum, and don’t share any information you don’t feel comfortable having passed on. As with Facebook, employers have been known to monitor “how they’re talked about” and how current and potential employees represent themselves online.

We encourage you to watch—and participate in—March Career Madness. Here are three resources to help you getting started.

How to Twitter
The Social Rules and Tips for Gaining “Followers,” Why Opinionated People Win
A new user shares her experience using Twitter, including writing suggestions for content

Newbie’s Guide for Twitter
Social media expert Chris Brogan’s straight talk on how to get started.

Round-Up of Users Guides and Tutorials for Twitter
From Pistachio Consulting, a firm specializing in the business use of Twitter and other “microsharing” applications

Participating Career Experts (& Their Twitter “handle”)
This list will expand as additional career experts join us.

Barbara Safani (barbarasafani)
Brian Kurth (briankurth)
Chandlee Bryan (Chandlee)
Deb Dib (CEOCoach)
Katherine Hansen (kathansen)
Kimberly Togman (ktogman)
Laura Allen (la15secondpitch)
Megan Fitzgerald (expatcoach)
Miriam Salpeter (Keppie_Careers)
Pam Slim (pamslim)
Paul Copcutt (Paulcopcutt)
Phyllis Shabad (Phyllisshabad)
Sital Ruparelia (SitalRuparelia)

Join us, and find a new play or two that helps you make a "three-pointer" in your career!

Lessons from Darwin

In the midst of the current downturn, there is a cause for celebration in academic circles: Scientists and historians are raising a glass to the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, the evolutionary biologist who brought the concept of "survival of the fittest" into popular culture.

As companies and countries across the globe struggle to find their economic footing, the commemoration feels like a strange reality tv show event to me: Will the outcome of this current market be a changed job market in which only the strongest and most compelling candidates can survive?

In this market, does the process of self-assessment and "finding your fit" fall by the wayside: Does necessity trump career exploration? Is it best to take a job--any job--that comes your way? I don't think so.

I'm no evolutionary biologist by training, but it seems to me that you are more likely to survive in any given position if it allows you to play your natural strengths. Career exploration--and knowing what you do well is a key component of any job search. So is having a great mentor.

Want proof? Take a look at how Darwin's career evolved: before he became known for his groundbreaking research on the H.M.S. Beagle, he made attempts at medical school and studied to become a minister.

How are you positioning yourself to survive the downturn? Will you involve others in your search process? Or will you go it alone? Is your current approach working for you?

Let me know if I can help.

To your success,
Chandlee

(I learned of Darwin's experience through my former supervisor, Patricia Rose, Director of Career Services at University of Pennsylvania, who has been a mentor to me and countless students and employees. Thanks, Pat!)

On Asking for Help and Recovering from Falls

It was a cold rainy day today--I'd say it was rather miserable.

This morning, I watched a woman in my neighborhood trip and have a full-on fall in the middle of the sidewalk. She chipped her front tooth, cut her lip, bruised her hands and knees, and couldn't get up for over ten minutes.

Five passerby (myself included) stopped, helped her call for help and waited with her until it arrived. Shortly after the accident, we went into triage mode: My friend called an ambulance, three others worked to assess the situation and reassure her, and I tried to get help from the drugstore next door, but as it wasn't "on the property"--no help.

The immediate reaction of the woman was to cry. Then, she took a deep breath, and shared with us her current needs, medical history, and feeling of unsteadiness from the fall. We talked and got to know each other as we waited until help arrived.

As a transplant to New York, I walked away feeling both annoyed (at the drugstore) and with a sense of appreciation (for fellow neighbors and passerby). Not surprisingly, given my line of work--it reminded me of the job search:

Like the drugstore, sometimes the places you expect to find help aren't particularly useful. (Ever applied for a job at a place you felt great about only to never hear again?)

Like a sudden fall, a turbulent change in job security can result in the most primal of reactions: aaccckkk!

And sometimes, help arrives in the most unexpected form when you figure out how to ask for it clearly...and can be specific about what you need.

Think you have no network? Explore LinkedIn and attend events in your community that align with your interests. Find anyone with common interests, follow-up, and make a new friend...

To your success,
Chandlee