– Kathryn Edwards, IDG News Service November 25, 2008
With an abundance of projects on the cards for 2009, the outlook for IT recruitment remains positive, according to Melbourne-based IT recruiter Peter Acheson.
Acheson, chief operating officer of IT recruitment specialists Peoplebank, expects recruitment to pick-up by April next year, fuelled by a considerable amount of IT project work that is in the pipeline or already underway, including system upgrades at many of the large Australian banks.
"All of the major banks are doing core system upgrades. CBA and NAB have already commenced with theirs, Westpac have got the integration of St George bank, a project that is very big and will drive a substantial amount of IT work," said Acheson, who also cited the NBN as driving a considerable amount of IT work in 2009.
Acheson says that even thought IT has experienced a softening in permanent recruitments throughout the year, employers don't believe the current economic crisis will impact their ability to attract and retain employees.
That message is echoed in recruiting firm Hudson's latest Recruitment Focus IT&T research, released earlier this month and based on survey responses from 1056 IT&T hiring managers.
"Over a number of years now it has been difficult for [hiring managers] to source, attract and retain good quality IT&T staff, and the economic climate hasn't impacted on that," said Hudson's director of IT&T, Shane Blandford.
According to Hudson's research, 69 percent of employers claim they are not affected by the economic downturn; however 42 percent said they continued to find sourcing candidates with appropriate skills difficult.
Hudson's research also suggests there is currently a shortage of software developers and business analysts in the marketplace, with an over-abundance of project managers and SAP professionals.
Both recruiters also spoke of the trend for IT contractors to seek permanent employment in this time of financial uncertainty.
"Some projects are being canceled and some are on hold, in particular projects that were heavily reliant on the contractor workforce," said Blandford. "So there potentially will be increased number of contractors coming into the employment pool."
In the US this week, Google acknowledged plans to "significantly" reduce the number of contractors it uses, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
In Australia however, Peoplebank's Acheson said contractors will continue to play a critical role in IT and have an important part to play in both implementing new IT projects and supporting ongoing operations.
"IT is one of the sectors with the largest contracting workforce and I don't think that's going to change," Acheson said. "I think IT contracting over time will continue to be a substantial proportion of the future of IT going forward."
While Acheson acknowledged that there's a natural predisposition for companies to consider contractors during periods of economic uncertainty, due to their greater flexibility over permanent employees, he urged CIOs to boost their employees confidence to avoid them fleeing the nest.
"I think in the current environment it's really important that CIO's are talking to their staff about the outlook and where they see the business going in 2009 -- and what the key projects and initiatives are that the company they work for is going to be investing in -- to shore-up people so they feel comfortable and confident about their futures."
Friday, November 28, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
How to Recession-Proof Yourself
By Meridith Levinson
November 17, 2008 — CIO — Layoff fears are sending a shiver through the workforce as the U.S. economy lurches toward a full-blown recession. And no one is safe as corporate cost-cutters sharpen their axes. Though senior executives are less vulnerable to losing their jobs than the employees below them, they, too, can be casualties of restructurings.
How To Motivate Your Employees During Layoffs Whether you're a CIO or a help desk technician, career coaches say you can take measures to prevent the hatchet from falling on your neck. Here's a list of actions they say you can take to help safeguard your job.
1. Know your value and communicate it. "If you're flying under the radar, you're going to be the first to be eliminated," says Kirsten Dixson, author of Career Distinction: Stand Out by Building Your Brand. This goes for CIOs, too.
Dixson recommends compiling a weekly status report that outlines the project or projects you're working on, your progress on those projects and your key performance indicators, and sending that report to your boss each week.
If you're known as a "growth and innovation CIO," now is also the time to prove that you're as adept at cost cutting as you are at generating ideas, says Joanne Dustin, a 25-year IT veteran who's now a career coach and an organizational development consultant.
Dustin says CIOs need to talk up the efficiencies and cost savings that their innovations have achieved as well as the revenue they've generated. Your company may still decide that it needs someone with a different skill set in the CIO role, but at least you've given it your best shot.
2. Be a team player. Getting along with others—in the boardroom or elsewhere—is critical when downsizing is on the table, especially for IT professionals who tend to be independent, says Dustin, who's worked as a programmer, project manager and systems manager. "These times require cooperation, flexibility and a willingness to go the extra mile," she says.
IT professionals who "just sit at their desk or in the server room and do their eight-to-five" are at risk, says Ed Longanacre, senior vice president of IT at Amerisafe, a provider of workers' compensation insurance. The problem with hunkering down, he says, is that it gives the impression that you're not interested in the organization.
3. Keep your ear to the ground. Staying attuned to what's going on inside your company, including gossip, can help you anticipate changes, says Patricia Stepanski Plouffe, president of Career Management Consultants. "If there's a rumor that your department is going to fold or downsize, you can identify other areas of the company where you could transfer your skills," she says. Just remember that you can't trust everything you hear, whether it comes from the water cooler or the CFO.
4. Adapt to change quickly. "If you can develop an attitude that nothing is going to stay the same and that your organization and your job will always be in flux, that will help you cope," says Stepanski Plouffe. "Be ready for whatever change may come up."
5. Get out and lead. "Executives are expected to set the vision and reassure people of the path the company is on," says Dixson. "This is not the time to go in your office and shut the door. Show decisiveness, strength and integrity. Show that you're combating the rumor mill."
November 17, 2008 — CIO — Layoff fears are sending a shiver through the workforce as the U.S. economy lurches toward a full-blown recession. And no one is safe as corporate cost-cutters sharpen their axes. Though senior executives are less vulnerable to losing their jobs than the employees below them, they, too, can be casualties of restructurings.
How To Motivate Your Employees During Layoffs Whether you're a CIO or a help desk technician, career coaches say you can take measures to prevent the hatchet from falling on your neck. Here's a list of actions they say you can take to help safeguard your job.
1. Know your value and communicate it. "If you're flying under the radar, you're going to be the first to be eliminated," says Kirsten Dixson, author of Career Distinction: Stand Out by Building Your Brand. This goes for CIOs, too.
Dixson recommends compiling a weekly status report that outlines the project or projects you're working on, your progress on those projects and your key performance indicators, and sending that report to your boss each week.
If you're known as a "growth and innovation CIO," now is also the time to prove that you're as adept at cost cutting as you are at generating ideas, says Joanne Dustin, a 25-year IT veteran who's now a career coach and an organizational development consultant.
Dustin says CIOs need to talk up the efficiencies and cost savings that their innovations have achieved as well as the revenue they've generated. Your company may still decide that it needs someone with a different skill set in the CIO role, but at least you've given it your best shot.
2. Be a team player. Getting along with others—in the boardroom or elsewhere—is critical when downsizing is on the table, especially for IT professionals who tend to be independent, says Dustin, who's worked as a programmer, project manager and systems manager. "These times require cooperation, flexibility and a willingness to go the extra mile," she says.
IT professionals who "just sit at their desk or in the server room and do their eight-to-five" are at risk, says Ed Longanacre, senior vice president of IT at Amerisafe, a provider of workers' compensation insurance. The problem with hunkering down, he says, is that it gives the impression that you're not interested in the organization.
3. Keep your ear to the ground. Staying attuned to what's going on inside your company, including gossip, can help you anticipate changes, says Patricia Stepanski Plouffe, president of Career Management Consultants. "If there's a rumor that your department is going to fold or downsize, you can identify other areas of the company where you could transfer your skills," she says. Just remember that you can't trust everything you hear, whether it comes from the water cooler or the CFO.
4. Adapt to change quickly. "If you can develop an attitude that nothing is going to stay the same and that your organization and your job will always be in flux, that will help you cope," says Stepanski Plouffe. "Be ready for whatever change may come up."
5. Get out and lead. "Executives are expected to set the vision and reassure people of the path the company is on," says Dixson. "This is not the time to go in your office and shut the door. Show decisiveness, strength and integrity. Show that you're combating the rumor mill."
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Can You Delete Your Digital Past?
– Tracy Mayor, Computerworld November 17, 2008
An unsavory connection from your past. An annoying link to your name that's dragging down your career. A spicy quote you tossed off to a reporter that you wish you could take back.
As time goes by, more of us are being tailed by some little thing out there on the Web, an awful bit that emerges when someone Googles our names, a black mark that we'd like to erase before a colleague or a prospective employer sees it.
A whole industry—known online reputation management—has grown up around helping individual clients and corporate clients suppress negative information online by creating more positive and search-engine-friendly postings.
But what if you don't just want something massaged, manipulated or suppressed? What if you want it gone? Is it possible for an ordinary person to get some damaging tidbit entirely erased from the Web?
Computerworld decided to find out. We gave ourselves a week to try to expunge unwanted online mentions, using three real-life examples as test cases:
• A recent college graduate with a distinctive last name would like to get rid of an entry on someone else's long-abandoned online journal. The entry mentions her full name in a rambling tale of drug-induced debauchery and sexual high jinks. It always shows up as the fourth or fifth result in a Google search on her name—a real problem now that the young woman (let's call her WrongedGirl) is applying for jobs.
• A freelance writer is mistakenly identified as a movie critic on Rotten Tomatoes, a popular site that aggregates movie reviews from print, TV and the Web. Although she personally admires Rotten Tomatoes, she worries that her byline juxtaposed next to the word "rotten" in the first few Google search results sets up an unpleasant association in the minds of prospective clients—especially older business people who have no idea what Rotten Tomatoes is.
• In an interview seven years ago, an IT professional gave a quote to Computerworld that included a salty phrase. She recently contacted the editors, asking them to either remove her name from the piece or prevent the article from being found in a search. Her goal: "I don't want any hits at all when my name is searched."
We started by calling a couple of online image management professionals for some free advice.
What not to do
If you're trying to get something erased from the Web, your first instinct might be to pursue legal action. Resist this urge, says Michael Fertik, CEO of ReputationDefender Inc., an online reputation management and privacy company in Redwood City, Calif.
Why? The Communications Decency Act of 1996 gives almost total immunity to Web sites, says Fertik. Even if you can establish a legal case, the distinctly nonphysical nature of the Web—where you, your defamer and the company that hosts the offending material can be in different states or countries, or simply be unknown—means that sorting out jurisdictions can turn into a legal quagmire.
Likewise, Fertik adds, another surprise dead end is the place where many people launch their erasure efforts: Google.
If an item doesn't show up in a Google search, it's as good as being truly gone, right?
Wrong. "Removing content from Google or another search engine would still leave the original content that exists on the Web," says a Google spokesman.
The better route, according to the spokesman: "Users that want content removed from the Internet should contact the webmaster of the page or the Internet hosting companies or ISPs hosting the content to find out their content removal policies."
Strike One: Misbegotten Quote
Computerworld started with three real-life instances in which people wanted material expunged from online sites, but the experts we consulted were optimistic about only one case—the situation in which a young woman's first and last name were included in a salacious online journal entry.
Here's a look at another case:
• IT manager talks salty to a business publication—Computerworld—and later regrets it. On this topic, our experts were divided. Columbia University journalism professor Todd Gitlin says it would be exceedingly rare for any mainstream publication to change the record for any reason. (Computerworld's editors agreed. The quote, with the source's name attached to it, still stands.)
ReputationDefender CEO Michael Fertik sees a little wiggle room, however. True, The New York Times is unlikely to change the record, but some smaller outlets might, he says.
"I don't know if I buy the journalistic integrity argument—though I respect it. A lot of small newspapers will fold right away as soon as you threaten them," he says.
That said, he notes that ReputationDefender does not handle requests to expunge material from mainstream media.
Google does offer tools on its support page to help with urgent requests to prevent personal content from appearing in a search result, such as when credit card or Social Security numbers are accidentally or maliciously published on the Web. If you do manage to successfully remove such an item, you'll need to also make sure that Google no longer caches the information, the representative says.
If legal action is prohibitively complicated and Google and other search engines can't help, what's the best tactic for getting something erased? A little digital digging and a lot of good old-fashioned human contact.
Priority No. 1 is to try to reach a human being, says Chris Martin, founder of ReputationHawk.com, an online reputation management service. His company starts by tracking down someone who has access to the Web site in question—either the author of the material or a third party like a webmaster or Web hosting service. "If the Web host is billing that person every month, if it's a paid account, they'll be able to contact them," Martin says.
The talking cure
If that approach fails, his company tries to reach people through various social media sites such as MySpace or Facebook or Web portals like Yahoo.
The bottom line: An address or a live e-mail account is good; a human on the phone is better, Martin says. "We call," he says. "We say we're from an Internet privacy corporation. We explain the situation, and we say, 'You need to take care of this as soon as possible.' "
Many times, people do, he says. "The situation can resolve really quickly," Martin says. "If there's a legitimate problem, it's natural for someone to go in there and take the material down."
ReputationHawk's fees vary by case. For a situation like WrongedGirl's, the charge would be $500 or less, Martin says. ReputationDefender doesn't take on ad hoc erasure cases. Instead, clients pay $9.95 per month for a yearly subscription and $29.95 per removal.
Both services claim that they have a much higher success rate than individuals. The reason? You're a newbie; they do this all day, every day.
ReputationDefender has taken on about 1,000 cases with an 85% success rate, according to Fertik. He says the cases build upon one another as relationships develop. "If you call them informally enough times, let them know you're not an abusive company, you're not sending legal letters, then you can have a very high success rate."
In contrast, says Martin, an individual trying to clean up his own reputation starts from scratch and has almost no clout. "We can dig and find contact information pretty quickly, and we're going to have a lot more pull when contacting the Web site owner," he says.
Setting WrongedGirl right
Of our three cases, both experts said the case of WrongedGirl stood the best chance of being resolved. That's good news, since it's the type of scenario that's playing out ever more frequently as the Net generation enters the workforce.
Armed with advice from the pros, we set out one recent Monday to see how far we could get in righting WrongedGirl's reputation in a week.
We first tried to track down the journal author herself, with the idea that we could entreat her to take down the offensive material. (Perhaps she had matured since her partying days.) It seems that five years ago, she set up an account at a free online journal site and posted half a dozen entries in 10 days—most apparently written under the influence of one substance or another—before abandoning the site.
We knew only her first name, her hometown from five years ago and the bands she liked at that time. The e-mail address listed in the user account for her online journal was defunct.
Strike Two: Rotten Tomatoes
Our final attempt to erase someone's digital tracks also met with defeat.
• Freelance journalist wants her name taken off the Rotten Tomatoes movie-review Web site.
Good luck with that, say ReputationDefender Inc. CEO Michael Fertik, ReputationHawk founder Chris Martin and Columbia University journalism professor Todd Gitlin. Large, commercial (implication: lucrative) Web sites have little need to accommodate your petty requests. If you get through and find a sympathetic person on the end of a phone line, perhaps you'll get lucky. Otherwise, fuggedaboutit.
That prediction turned out to be on the money. Multiple e-mails to various Rotten Tomatoes addresses went unanswered or were bounced back as undeliverable. Messages left at the phone number for the parent company, IGN Entertainment Inc., likewise went nowhere.
Apparently, the journalist's best course of action would be to do what reputation mavens recommended in the first place: Create enough positive, search-engine-friendly content to push the "rotten + journalist's name" search result to Google's second page of results.
WrongedGirl provided us with a possible last name for the author, but unfortunately, like the author's first name, it was too common to be helpful. Her first and possibly last names together garnered 1,260 hits on Google, including multiple references on YouTube and multiple accounts on LinkedIn and Facebook, none of which appeared to be our author.
After a couple of mind-numbing hours trolling MySpace accounts, we did find an entry that looked promising (same first name, same state and county, if not exact hometown, and same favorite bands), but that too had been updated only a few times before being abandoned more than two years ago. It looked like we had a serial journaler on our hands.
We gave up on trying to track down the author and turned to the site where the journal was posted—Blurty. We posted our request to remove the offending material in the support forum. A few moments later, we received an automated e-mail response, with a tracking number, saying that our request had been received and would be addressed as soon as possible. But over the next four days, nobody responded.
Scoping out the site
Trying another angle, we trolled through Blurty's support, legal, privacy and terms of service documents and sent e-mails to any other addresses we found there (abuse@blurty.com, for example), asking that the entry in question be taken down.
Two days later, with no response on any front, we used WhoIs to try to find a physical address for Blurty. Its technical contact was listed as being in Encinitas, Calif. When we called the phone number given in the WhoIs listing, a recorded voice informed us we'd reached Sunlane Media LLC.
Back to the Web for more searching: Our heart sank when we found that Sunlane has registered hundreds of other domains, nearly all of which appeared to be porn sites. Wonderful.
We called three separate phone numbers we found for Sunlane in various WhoIs listings—two of which sounded like cell phones and one that had the quality of a home answering machine circa 1995. None had a live person on the other end. We left messages at each number, trying to sound professional enough to elicit a swift response and distressed enough to elicit sympathy.
Resolution
The next day was Friday, our self-imposed deadline. We sent one final e-mail—replying to the webmaster address from which we'd received the tracking number earlier in the week—and requesting a response that leaned even more heavily on the sympathy angle.
Still nothing. At the end of the day, feeling discouraged, we drafted an e-mail to Fertik at ReputationDefender, requesting suggestions for further action. But when we Googled WrongedGirl's name to find and furnish the link to the offensive journal entry, it was gone from Google.
Amazed, we flipped over to the Internet Explorer bookmark we'd made for the page and saw this message: "Error. This journal has been suspended."
Excellent! But just what had done the job—which e-mail or phone call? We had no way of knowing, though a full 10 days later, an e-mail arrived from the abuse@blurty.com address, telling us what we'd already figured out: The journal had been taken down.
Have your say
Have you ever tried to erase your tracks online? Tell us how you did.
We were ebullient but also chastened. Yes, we had managed restore WrongedGirl's good name, but we had no clear understanding of exactly how we had done it, and our other two attempts at erasing unwanted online tracks (see here and here) had come up dry.
In the end, Fertik's words came back to haunt us: "A lot of this stuff you can do yourself—if you have the time, the expertise and the temperament to get it done," he had told us before we began. "But how many people change the oil in their own car anymore?"
Of course, Fertik has a vested interest in urging people to hire companies like his own, but we had to concede that he also had a point: Erasing your tracks online takes time, perseverance and more than a little luck.
Mayor is a Computerworld contributing editor.
An unsavory connection from your past. An annoying link to your name that's dragging down your career. A spicy quote you tossed off to a reporter that you wish you could take back.
As time goes by, more of us are being tailed by some little thing out there on the Web, an awful bit that emerges when someone Googles our names, a black mark that we'd like to erase before a colleague or a prospective employer sees it.
A whole industry—known online reputation management—has grown up around helping individual clients and corporate clients suppress negative information online by creating more positive and search-engine-friendly postings.
But what if you don't just want something massaged, manipulated or suppressed? What if you want it gone? Is it possible for an ordinary person to get some damaging tidbit entirely erased from the Web?
Computerworld decided to find out. We gave ourselves a week to try to expunge unwanted online mentions, using three real-life examples as test cases:
• A recent college graduate with a distinctive last name would like to get rid of an entry on someone else's long-abandoned online journal. The entry mentions her full name in a rambling tale of drug-induced debauchery and sexual high jinks. It always shows up as the fourth or fifth result in a Google search on her name—a real problem now that the young woman (let's call her WrongedGirl) is applying for jobs.
• A freelance writer is mistakenly identified as a movie critic on Rotten Tomatoes, a popular site that aggregates movie reviews from print, TV and the Web. Although she personally admires Rotten Tomatoes, she worries that her byline juxtaposed next to the word "rotten" in the first few Google search results sets up an unpleasant association in the minds of prospective clients—especially older business people who have no idea what Rotten Tomatoes is.
• In an interview seven years ago, an IT professional gave a quote to Computerworld that included a salty phrase. She recently contacted the editors, asking them to either remove her name from the piece or prevent the article from being found in a search. Her goal: "I don't want any hits at all when my name is searched."
We started by calling a couple of online image management professionals for some free advice.
What not to do
If you're trying to get something erased from the Web, your first instinct might be to pursue legal action. Resist this urge, says Michael Fertik, CEO of ReputationDefender Inc., an online reputation management and privacy company in Redwood City, Calif.
Why? The Communications Decency Act of 1996 gives almost total immunity to Web sites, says Fertik. Even if you can establish a legal case, the distinctly nonphysical nature of the Web—where you, your defamer and the company that hosts the offending material can be in different states or countries, or simply be unknown—means that sorting out jurisdictions can turn into a legal quagmire.
Likewise, Fertik adds, another surprise dead end is the place where many people launch their erasure efforts: Google.
If an item doesn't show up in a Google search, it's as good as being truly gone, right?
Wrong. "Removing content from Google or another search engine would still leave the original content that exists on the Web," says a Google spokesman.
The better route, according to the spokesman: "Users that want content removed from the Internet should contact the webmaster of the page or the Internet hosting companies or ISPs hosting the content to find out their content removal policies."
Strike One: Misbegotten Quote
Computerworld started with three real-life instances in which people wanted material expunged from online sites, but the experts we consulted were optimistic about only one case—the situation in which a young woman's first and last name were included in a salacious online journal entry.
Here's a look at another case:
• IT manager talks salty to a business publication—Computerworld—and later regrets it. On this topic, our experts were divided. Columbia University journalism professor Todd Gitlin says it would be exceedingly rare for any mainstream publication to change the record for any reason. (Computerworld's editors agreed. The quote, with the source's name attached to it, still stands.)
ReputationDefender CEO Michael Fertik sees a little wiggle room, however. True, The New York Times is unlikely to change the record, but some smaller outlets might, he says.
"I don't know if I buy the journalistic integrity argument—though I respect it. A lot of small newspapers will fold right away as soon as you threaten them," he says.
That said, he notes that ReputationDefender does not handle requests to expunge material from mainstream media.
Google does offer tools on its support page to help with urgent requests to prevent personal content from appearing in a search result, such as when credit card or Social Security numbers are accidentally or maliciously published on the Web. If you do manage to successfully remove such an item, you'll need to also make sure that Google no longer caches the information, the representative says.
If legal action is prohibitively complicated and Google and other search engines can't help, what's the best tactic for getting something erased? A little digital digging and a lot of good old-fashioned human contact.
Priority No. 1 is to try to reach a human being, says Chris Martin, founder of ReputationHawk.com, an online reputation management service. His company starts by tracking down someone who has access to the Web site in question—either the author of the material or a third party like a webmaster or Web hosting service. "If the Web host is billing that person every month, if it's a paid account, they'll be able to contact them," Martin says.
The talking cure
If that approach fails, his company tries to reach people through various social media sites such as MySpace or Facebook or Web portals like Yahoo.
The bottom line: An address or a live e-mail account is good; a human on the phone is better, Martin says. "We call," he says. "We say we're from an Internet privacy corporation. We explain the situation, and we say, 'You need to take care of this as soon as possible.' "
Many times, people do, he says. "The situation can resolve really quickly," Martin says. "If there's a legitimate problem, it's natural for someone to go in there and take the material down."
ReputationHawk's fees vary by case. For a situation like WrongedGirl's, the charge would be $500 or less, Martin says. ReputationDefender doesn't take on ad hoc erasure cases. Instead, clients pay $9.95 per month for a yearly subscription and $29.95 per removal.
Both services claim that they have a much higher success rate than individuals. The reason? You're a newbie; they do this all day, every day.
ReputationDefender has taken on about 1,000 cases with an 85% success rate, according to Fertik. He says the cases build upon one another as relationships develop. "If you call them informally enough times, let them know you're not an abusive company, you're not sending legal letters, then you can have a very high success rate."
In contrast, says Martin, an individual trying to clean up his own reputation starts from scratch and has almost no clout. "We can dig and find contact information pretty quickly, and we're going to have a lot more pull when contacting the Web site owner," he says.
Setting WrongedGirl right
Of our three cases, both experts said the case of WrongedGirl stood the best chance of being resolved. That's good news, since it's the type of scenario that's playing out ever more frequently as the Net generation enters the workforce.
Armed with advice from the pros, we set out one recent Monday to see how far we could get in righting WrongedGirl's reputation in a week.
We first tried to track down the journal author herself, with the idea that we could entreat her to take down the offensive material. (Perhaps she had matured since her partying days.) It seems that five years ago, she set up an account at a free online journal site and posted half a dozen entries in 10 days—most apparently written under the influence of one substance or another—before abandoning the site.
We knew only her first name, her hometown from five years ago and the bands she liked at that time. The e-mail address listed in the user account for her online journal was defunct.
Strike Two: Rotten Tomatoes
Our final attempt to erase someone's digital tracks also met with defeat.
• Freelance journalist wants her name taken off the Rotten Tomatoes movie-review Web site.
Good luck with that, say ReputationDefender Inc. CEO Michael Fertik, ReputationHawk founder Chris Martin and Columbia University journalism professor Todd Gitlin. Large, commercial (implication: lucrative) Web sites have little need to accommodate your petty requests. If you get through and find a sympathetic person on the end of a phone line, perhaps you'll get lucky. Otherwise, fuggedaboutit.
That prediction turned out to be on the money. Multiple e-mails to various Rotten Tomatoes addresses went unanswered or were bounced back as undeliverable. Messages left at the phone number for the parent company, IGN Entertainment Inc., likewise went nowhere.
Apparently, the journalist's best course of action would be to do what reputation mavens recommended in the first place: Create enough positive, search-engine-friendly content to push the "rotten + journalist's name" search result to Google's second page of results.
WrongedGirl provided us with a possible last name for the author, but unfortunately, like the author's first name, it was too common to be helpful. Her first and possibly last names together garnered 1,260 hits on Google, including multiple references on YouTube and multiple accounts on LinkedIn and Facebook, none of which appeared to be our author.
After a couple of mind-numbing hours trolling MySpace accounts, we did find an entry that looked promising (same first name, same state and county, if not exact hometown, and same favorite bands), but that too had been updated only a few times before being abandoned more than two years ago. It looked like we had a serial journaler on our hands.
We gave up on trying to track down the author and turned to the site where the journal was posted—Blurty. We posted our request to remove the offending material in the support forum. A few moments later, we received an automated e-mail response, with a tracking number, saying that our request had been received and would be addressed as soon as possible. But over the next four days, nobody responded.
Scoping out the site
Trying another angle, we trolled through Blurty's support, legal, privacy and terms of service documents and sent e-mails to any other addresses we found there (abuse@blurty.com, for example), asking that the entry in question be taken down.
Two days later, with no response on any front, we used WhoIs to try to find a physical address for Blurty. Its technical contact was listed as being in Encinitas, Calif. When we called the phone number given in the WhoIs listing, a recorded voice informed us we'd reached Sunlane Media LLC.
Back to the Web for more searching: Our heart sank when we found that Sunlane has registered hundreds of other domains, nearly all of which appeared to be porn sites. Wonderful.
We called three separate phone numbers we found for Sunlane in various WhoIs listings—two of which sounded like cell phones and one that had the quality of a home answering machine circa 1995. None had a live person on the other end. We left messages at each number, trying to sound professional enough to elicit a swift response and distressed enough to elicit sympathy.
Resolution
The next day was Friday, our self-imposed deadline. We sent one final e-mail—replying to the webmaster address from which we'd received the tracking number earlier in the week—and requesting a response that leaned even more heavily on the sympathy angle.
Still nothing. At the end of the day, feeling discouraged, we drafted an e-mail to Fertik at ReputationDefender, requesting suggestions for further action. But when we Googled WrongedGirl's name to find and furnish the link to the offensive journal entry, it was gone from Google.
Amazed, we flipped over to the Internet Explorer bookmark we'd made for the page and saw this message: "Error. This journal has been suspended."
Excellent! But just what had done the job—which e-mail or phone call? We had no way of knowing, though a full 10 days later, an e-mail arrived from the abuse@blurty.com address, telling us what we'd already figured out: The journal had been taken down.
Have your say
Have you ever tried to erase your tracks online? Tell us how you did.
We were ebullient but also chastened. Yes, we had managed restore WrongedGirl's good name, but we had no clear understanding of exactly how we had done it, and our other two attempts at erasing unwanted online tracks (see here and here) had come up dry.
In the end, Fertik's words came back to haunt us: "A lot of this stuff you can do yourself—if you have the time, the expertise and the temperament to get it done," he had told us before we began. "But how many people change the oil in their own car anymore?"
Of course, Fertik has a vested interest in urging people to hire companies like his own, but we had to concede that he also had a point: Erasing your tracks online takes time, perseverance and more than a little luck.
Mayor is a Computerworld contributing editor.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Stick With the Job You Know, More Employees Are Saying
from the WSJ Career Center
A growing number of professionals are saying "no, thanks" to prospective employers asking them to change jobs.
Spooked by the shaky economy, 46% of U.S. middle managers polled in mid-September said switching employers in the current environment is risky, according to a survey by Accenture Ltd. Just 13% of respondents said they were actively looking for a new job, down from 30% the last time Accenture conducted a similar survey in 2005.
The findings are echoed by search-firm recruiters, who say they are having to work harder just to get professionals to hear out job opportunities they have to offer. And dire tales of people losing their jobs shortly after being hired, although rare, are helping to spread caution among workers.
Many employees are hesitant to join new companies because "there's a level of uncertainty," says David Smith, managing director of talent and organization performance at Accenture, a global consulting company. It's unclear whether a different employer will be able to provide sufficient job security, training, advancement opportunities and other benefits. By contrast, they know what's available to them where they work now, he says.
The Accenture survey, to be released Thursday, polled via the Internet 322 middle managers, including account supervisors, associate vice presidents and sales managers. In its 2005 survey, which polled 225 professionals about their job outlooks, Accenture didn't ask about perceptions of risk because the economy was strong at the time, a spokesman says.
Professionals who are considering switching jobs should carefully vet the financial health of a prospective employer, job recruiters say. To protect themselves, job candidates also should try to request that a severance package be included in any employment contract.
Workers may have good reason to be cautious about making a career move at such an economically volatile time. Consider what happened to an information-technology professional who resigned from his job at a New York investment bank. In late September, the employee accepted a written offer for a management job paying $120,000 a year. Days before he was to start, the new employer, a New York-based hedge fund, decided not to fill the position, citing upheaval in the financial markets as the reason, says Ron Weiss, a partner at search firm BMW Group Inc., who had introduced the parties to each other.
Though the hedge fund followed through on a promise to pay the candidate a $32,000 sign-on bonus, he was left initially without a job, says Mr. Weiss, who adds that this is the first time he has seen a job fall through at such a late stage of the process. The IT professional recently was hired by a foreign bank, the recruiter says.
Search firms say they are finding it harder to lure prospective candidates. "We have to really create for them something that is a sure thing," says Robin Bland, a senior recruiter at QuestPro, a search firm in Dallas that specializes in the insurance industry. "We have to bombard them with information about a potential employer so they feel secure about it."
Candidates also are taking longer to make up their minds about a job offer, says Aaron Brooks, managing director at Chicago-based search firm Mergis Group. "Companies need to realize that candidates are more in the driver's seat than they might think," he says.
Professionals should consider that when an employer needs to lay off workers, "sometimes it's last in, first out," says Dale Winston, chairman and chief executive officer of Battalia Winston International, an executive-search firm based in New York. In other instances, an entire division may be cut.
Kevin Burke was laid off earlier this month as a vice president of finance at a large chemical manufacturer after just seven months at the job. He had relocated his family for the position from Ohio to Missouri, where he bought a home. He says the company was having financial troubles and eliminated the department he worked in. "I certainly was surprised," he says.
Mr. Burke, 41 years old, had left behind a similar job at an automotive manufacturer. Despite the upheaval, he says, he doesn't blame his latest employer for what happened. "Market conditions dictated this result," he says. "Nobody expected the economy to burst as it has."
Job candidates may be able to protect themselves to some degree by asking prospective employers some direct questions, says Paula Marks, an executive coach and managing partner at Gilbert Tweed Associates, an executive-search firm in New York. For example: What's the financial status of the company? What is the employee turnover like? Do you expect the company to be sold anytime soon? When was the last time you had layoffs? What criteria did you use for those layoffs?
Meanwhile, do some research on your own, adds Ms. Marks. Search the Web for news articles for insight into a potential new employer's financial status and layoff history. If it's a public company, review its 10-K filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission -- documents that summarize a public company's performance. Networking is also critical, says Ms. Marks. Seek out referrals to past and present employees at the company you're considering joining to get their opinions and more information about the organization.
Candidates also should try to secure a severance package as part of their employment contract and have an attorney review it before accepting a job offer, says Ms. Marks. Propose the same size package your current employer has promised you if you were to be dismissed, she advises. Should you want another amount, offer what you're most comfortable with. If your request is rejected, consider turning the offer down. "You have to protect yourself," she says.
It's wise to weigh the pros and cons of a job change with a professional career coach or mentor, says Ms. Marks. "Don't discuss it with friends and family. They bring their own baggage, their own fears."
A growing number of professionals are saying "no, thanks" to prospective employers asking them to change jobs.
Spooked by the shaky economy, 46% of U.S. middle managers polled in mid-September said switching employers in the current environment is risky, according to a survey by Accenture Ltd. Just 13% of respondents said they were actively looking for a new job, down from 30% the last time Accenture conducted a similar survey in 2005.
The findings are echoed by search-firm recruiters, who say they are having to work harder just to get professionals to hear out job opportunities they have to offer. And dire tales of people losing their jobs shortly after being hired, although rare, are helping to spread caution among workers.
Many employees are hesitant to join new companies because "there's a level of uncertainty," says David Smith, managing director of talent and organization performance at Accenture, a global consulting company. It's unclear whether a different employer will be able to provide sufficient job security, training, advancement opportunities and other benefits. By contrast, they know what's available to them where they work now, he says.
The Accenture survey, to be released Thursday, polled via the Internet 322 middle managers, including account supervisors, associate vice presidents and sales managers. In its 2005 survey, which polled 225 professionals about their job outlooks, Accenture didn't ask about perceptions of risk because the economy was strong at the time, a spokesman says.
Professionals who are considering switching jobs should carefully vet the financial health of a prospective employer, job recruiters say. To protect themselves, job candidates also should try to request that a severance package be included in any employment contract.
Workers may have good reason to be cautious about making a career move at such an economically volatile time. Consider what happened to an information-technology professional who resigned from his job at a New York investment bank. In late September, the employee accepted a written offer for a management job paying $120,000 a year. Days before he was to start, the new employer, a New York-based hedge fund, decided not to fill the position, citing upheaval in the financial markets as the reason, says Ron Weiss, a partner at search firm BMW Group Inc., who had introduced the parties to each other.
Though the hedge fund followed through on a promise to pay the candidate a $32,000 sign-on bonus, he was left initially without a job, says Mr. Weiss, who adds that this is the first time he has seen a job fall through at such a late stage of the process. The IT professional recently was hired by a foreign bank, the recruiter says.
Search firms say they are finding it harder to lure prospective candidates. "We have to really create for them something that is a sure thing," says Robin Bland, a senior recruiter at QuestPro, a search firm in Dallas that specializes in the insurance industry. "We have to bombard them with information about a potential employer so they feel secure about it."
Candidates also are taking longer to make up their minds about a job offer, says Aaron Brooks, managing director at Chicago-based search firm Mergis Group. "Companies need to realize that candidates are more in the driver's seat than they might think," he says.
Professionals should consider that when an employer needs to lay off workers, "sometimes it's last in, first out," says Dale Winston, chairman and chief executive officer of Battalia Winston International, an executive-search firm based in New York. In other instances, an entire division may be cut.
Kevin Burke was laid off earlier this month as a vice president of finance at a large chemical manufacturer after just seven months at the job. He had relocated his family for the position from Ohio to Missouri, where he bought a home. He says the company was having financial troubles and eliminated the department he worked in. "I certainly was surprised," he says.
Mr. Burke, 41 years old, had left behind a similar job at an automotive manufacturer. Despite the upheaval, he says, he doesn't blame his latest employer for what happened. "Market conditions dictated this result," he says. "Nobody expected the economy to burst as it has."
Job candidates may be able to protect themselves to some degree by asking prospective employers some direct questions, says Paula Marks, an executive coach and managing partner at Gilbert Tweed Associates, an executive-search firm in New York. For example: What's the financial status of the company? What is the employee turnover like? Do you expect the company to be sold anytime soon? When was the last time you had layoffs? What criteria did you use for those layoffs?
Meanwhile, do some research on your own, adds Ms. Marks. Search the Web for news articles for insight into a potential new employer's financial status and layoff history. If it's a public company, review its 10-K filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission -- documents that summarize a public company's performance. Networking is also critical, says Ms. Marks. Seek out referrals to past and present employees at the company you're considering joining to get their opinions and more information about the organization.
Candidates also should try to secure a severance package as part of their employment contract and have an attorney review it before accepting a job offer, says Ms. Marks. Propose the same size package your current employer has promised you if you were to be dismissed, she advises. Should you want another amount, offer what you're most comfortable with. If your request is rejected, consider turning the offer down. "You have to protect yourself," she says.
It's wise to weigh the pros and cons of a job change with a professional career coach or mentor, says Ms. Marks. "Don't discuss it with friends and family. They bring their own baggage, their own fears."
Monday, November 17, 2008
Ethics, Morals Top IT Execs' Hiring Checklists
IT executives surveyed by the Society for Information Management cited ethics and morals as the top characteristics they look for in candidates for IT jobs, as their concerns about disgruntled IT workers grow
November 17, 2008 — Computerworld — Information technology leaders are hungry to recruit .Net programmers, desktop support technicians and voice-over-IP project leaders, according to an online survey conducted in June by the Society for Information Management.
Making the Best Right Decision But when asked by SIM to cite the top workplace skills that they're seeking in candidates for both entry-level and midlevel IT jobs, the 300-plus respondents placed the greatest emphasis on ethics and morals.
SIM didn't disclose the number of respondents who cited ethics and morals. But that choice overwhelmingly topped alternatives such as communication skills and business acumen, said the group, which released the full results of the annual survey at its SIMposium 2008 conference in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., last week.
Jerry Luftman, a professor at Stevens Institute of Technology and SIM's vice president of academic affairs, said that many IT executives have voiced concerns about reports of tech workers doing unethical things such as circumventing security systems.
Luftman, who is executive director of the information systems graduate programs at Stevens, also noted that cheating scandals at some U.S. colleges have grabbed people's attention.
"It's hot on everyone's minds," Luftman said. "This whole issue of ethics and morals is becoming paramount to IT executives."
"To me, this is the price of entry into my [IT] department," said Paul Major, CIO at The Aspen Skiing Co. in Colorado. Major noted that he recently had to fire two people from his 20-person IT organization because they didn't "exhibit the type of principles that we try to emulate with our team and in our company."
Major also said that prior to getting into any discussions about technical skills during job interviews, he does a "gut check" of the applicants based on how they're dressed and how they present themselves. "Then I give them the spiel on the company's guiding principles," he said.
Mike Close, chief technology officer at The Dannon Co. in White Plains, N.Y., said that gauging the moral fiber of job applicants has long been part of the vetting process at the yogurt maker, which has done "a significant amount of hiring" over the past couple of years.
This version of the story originally appeared in Computerworld's print edition.
November 17, 2008 — Computerworld — Information technology leaders are hungry to recruit .Net programmers, desktop support technicians and voice-over-IP project leaders, according to an online survey conducted in June by the Society for Information Management.
Making the Best Right Decision But when asked by SIM to cite the top workplace skills that they're seeking in candidates for both entry-level and midlevel IT jobs, the 300-plus respondents placed the greatest emphasis on ethics and morals.
SIM didn't disclose the number of respondents who cited ethics and morals. But that choice overwhelmingly topped alternatives such as communication skills and business acumen, said the group, which released the full results of the annual survey at its SIMposium 2008 conference in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., last week.
Jerry Luftman, a professor at Stevens Institute of Technology and SIM's vice president of academic affairs, said that many IT executives have voiced concerns about reports of tech workers doing unethical things such as circumventing security systems.
Luftman, who is executive director of the information systems graduate programs at Stevens, also noted that cheating scandals at some U.S. colleges have grabbed people's attention.
"It's hot on everyone's minds," Luftman said. "This whole issue of ethics and morals is becoming paramount to IT executives."
"To me, this is the price of entry into my [IT] department," said Paul Major, CIO at The Aspen Skiing Co. in Colorado. Major noted that he recently had to fire two people from his 20-person IT organization because they didn't "exhibit the type of principles that we try to emulate with our team and in our company."
Major also said that prior to getting into any discussions about technical skills during job interviews, he does a "gut check" of the applicants based on how they're dressed and how they present themselves. "Then I give them the spiel on the company's guiding principles," he said.
Mike Close, chief technology officer at The Dannon Co. in White Plains, N.Y., said that gauging the moral fiber of job applicants has long been part of the vetting process at the yogurt maker, which has done "a significant amount of hiring" over the past couple of years.
This version of the story originally appeared in Computerworld's print edition.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Is Asking For a Counter Offer a Good Idea?
from the Career Q&A at Dow Jones
Q: I work from home in Southern California in a niche field for a large Boston-based financial services firm. Because of my work from home arrangement, I have been paid less than I would have if I were to work in the Boston office. A recruiter recently contacted me about a job opening with one of the most well-respected, stable financial companies in the world. I was offered the job and would have to move – to a much less expensive area -- if I accept. The pay is 30% higher; and the bonus is also higher. I told my boss about the offer and asked if the company might increase my salary. He said he would ask his boss and see if there is some way they could match the base salary from the offer I got, but that the bonus couldn't be matched. Was I dumb to ask for this? Will it hurt me in the long run if I stay with my current job?
A: Before you approached your boss and told him about your competing offer, it probably would have been a good idea to find out how your employer has reacted to other employees who may have mentioned competing offers in an effort to get a pay raise. "Some company culture are unforgiving of employees who appear to be looking for opportunities outside the firm," says Alane Baranello, managing director at Eileen Finn & Associates, an executive recruiting firm. "In these cases, an employee might be "forced" to leave a firm if their request is denied," says Ms. Baranello.
[Getting a Counteroffer] Getty Images
This, of course, may not be the case with your firm especially since you work in a niche field. Still, "counteroffers rarely work as they often make the company feel like they have been held hostage," says Jo Bennett, a partner with Battalia Winston, an executive-search firm. The best strategy would have been for you to make up your mind and decide what you wanted to do first, then approach your firm.
Most people need to consider the money, as you have in this case, then the future career opportunity and finally the people with whom you would work, says Ms. Bennett. If two of the three criteria puts you in a better situation in the long run, then it might be worth it make the jump. Then, "you give notice and if your boss doesn't want you to go, you might get a counteroffer," says Ms. Bennett.
Now that your boss knows about the offer, he's going to be asked by his boss whether or not you're worth a raise. "You will be subject to an off-cycle performance appraisal with the addition question "Is he loyal enough to keep?," says Mr. Paul Gavejian, managing director at Total Compensation Solutions. You may need to assuage worries your boss might have in case he is worried that you just got another offer to leverage a pay increase—whether or not you did.
Truth is, your boss doesn't sound too encouraging; he's already told you that the bonus couldn't be matched. So, if your increase isn't going to be granted, "take the high road," if you decide to stay, says Mr. Gavejian. To that end, you're really just trying to ensure that you can meet the cost of living increases in an area where the cost of living is higher than the national average. You can say that you didn't mean to be disloyal to the company but that "you've heard your job pays a lot more in other companies and that you want to be sure that you're being paid fairly for your work," says Mr. Gavejian.
Of course, this all assumes that your work product, performance and dedication to your job remains high. In many cases, companies don't often take into account employee growth on the job. "It is okay to point these out to your employer and it is even considered a plus in some circles," says Mr. Gavejian. Try to position yourself as someone who is committed to your job, who is successful and who is therefore worth more money.
The most important thing is to do is to turn around any negative perception that you put your boss into a bind and forced him to raise your salary with a counteroffer. If you're able to do that, are happy in your current job and believe you can keep up the quality of your work, then "your future success with your current employer should not be affected," says Ms. Baranello. If you're not sure you can do that, you might want to consider the offer you received – or plan to look for another job even if you don't jump at the current offer.
Q: I work from home in Southern California in a niche field for a large Boston-based financial services firm. Because of my work from home arrangement, I have been paid less than I would have if I were to work in the Boston office. A recruiter recently contacted me about a job opening with one of the most well-respected, stable financial companies in the world. I was offered the job and would have to move – to a much less expensive area -- if I accept. The pay is 30% higher; and the bonus is also higher. I told my boss about the offer and asked if the company might increase my salary. He said he would ask his boss and see if there is some way they could match the base salary from the offer I got, but that the bonus couldn't be matched. Was I dumb to ask for this? Will it hurt me in the long run if I stay with my current job?
A: Before you approached your boss and told him about your competing offer, it probably would have been a good idea to find out how your employer has reacted to other employees who may have mentioned competing offers in an effort to get a pay raise. "Some company culture are unforgiving of employees who appear to be looking for opportunities outside the firm," says Alane Baranello, managing director at Eileen Finn & Associates, an executive recruiting firm. "In these cases, an employee might be "forced" to leave a firm if their request is denied," says Ms. Baranello.
[Getting a Counteroffer] Getty Images
This, of course, may not be the case with your firm especially since you work in a niche field. Still, "counteroffers rarely work as they often make the company feel like they have been held hostage," says Jo Bennett, a partner with Battalia Winston, an executive-search firm. The best strategy would have been for you to make up your mind and decide what you wanted to do first, then approach your firm.
Most people need to consider the money, as you have in this case, then the future career opportunity and finally the people with whom you would work, says Ms. Bennett. If two of the three criteria puts you in a better situation in the long run, then it might be worth it make the jump. Then, "you give notice and if your boss doesn't want you to go, you might get a counteroffer," says Ms. Bennett.
Now that your boss knows about the offer, he's going to be asked by his boss whether or not you're worth a raise. "You will be subject to an off-cycle performance appraisal with the addition question "Is he loyal enough to keep?," says Mr. Paul Gavejian, managing director at Total Compensation Solutions. You may need to assuage worries your boss might have in case he is worried that you just got another offer to leverage a pay increase—whether or not you did.
Truth is, your boss doesn't sound too encouraging; he's already told you that the bonus couldn't be matched. So, if your increase isn't going to be granted, "take the high road," if you decide to stay, says Mr. Gavejian. To that end, you're really just trying to ensure that you can meet the cost of living increases in an area where the cost of living is higher than the national average. You can say that you didn't mean to be disloyal to the company but that "you've heard your job pays a lot more in other companies and that you want to be sure that you're being paid fairly for your work," says Mr. Gavejian.
Of course, this all assumes that your work product, performance and dedication to your job remains high. In many cases, companies don't often take into account employee growth on the job. "It is okay to point these out to your employer and it is even considered a plus in some circles," says Mr. Gavejian. Try to position yourself as someone who is committed to your job, who is successful and who is therefore worth more money.
The most important thing is to do is to turn around any negative perception that you put your boss into a bind and forced him to raise your salary with a counteroffer. If you're able to do that, are happy in your current job and believe you can keep up the quality of your work, then "your future success with your current employer should not be affected," says Ms. Baranello. If you're not sure you can do that, you might want to consider the offer you received – or plan to look for another job even if you don't jump at the current offer.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Networking? Here's How to Stand Out
from the WSJ - 11/4/08
Fans of Bruce Mount sang his praises to BzzAgent before he applied to become vice president of engineering of the Boston word-of-mouth marketer.
In late June, the software-development manager asked nearly two dozen present and past colleagues to tout his abilities. "Even one sentence will help!" he assured them. Their testimonials ranged from a brief haiku to a multipage missive dubbing him "a freakin' goldmine of knowledge, ingenuity and kindness."
Mr. Mount's creative approach "made him stand out," recalls Rossana Y. de la Cruz, BzzAgent's director of recruiting. He was the frontrunner among 166 outside prospects. And though the firm ultimately promoted an insider, Ms. de la Cruz vows to consider him again for a relevant vacancy.
Unusual times demand unusual networking tactics. Most candidates find work through networking, surveys show. But in today's dismal job market, many feel frustrated with standard strategies such as tapping friends for referrals.
Clients of Laurence J. Stybel, a Boston outplacement counselor, fret that acquaintances ignore their aid requests because the contacts fear losing their jobs. Anxious about unemployment, people hoard knowledge about openings for themselves and closest friends. Networking "is perceived to be a zero-sum game," the president of Stybel Peabody Lincolnshire says.
What's Wrong With My Job Search?
Possible questions to pose in an anonymous poll of your network:
* What three words come to mind when you think of my strengths? What three words come to mind when you think about areas where I could improve?
* Is there one aspect of my hunt where I am making a big mistake but appear unaware? If yes, what is my mistake?
* What jobs do you think I might be good at that I haven't considered?
* What type of jobs have I looked down on that might pay well?
Source: Diane Darling, CEO of Effective Networking Inc.
"The bar has been raised on what it takes to make networking work," concurs Scott Allen, a consultant about online networking. "Virtual interaction allows us to create the illusion of networking by making electronic links with people," but online ties represent "just a starting point," he says. "You still need some kind of relationship."
For job hunters who use networking Web sites like LinkedIn.com, Mr. Allen favors a more-sophisticated approach. When you invite someone to join you on LinkedIn, he proposes including a personalized offer of help, such as an introduction to a customer or a useful link to a relevant article.
In the real world, you can improve your networking by finding out whether key executives of potential employers will attend a trade group meeting and then scheduling encounters during the event, recommends Brandon Gutman, vice president of business development at Battalia Winston International, a New York search firm. "Don't expect to just show up and bump into these people," he cautions.
Robb Leland wanted to move into mobile marketing, which involves targeting promotions at mobile devices. He identified three mobile-marketing concerns that were listed on an industry association's site as being registered for the group's March 2008 conference. He then contacted officials at the companies, including Shira Simmonds, president and co-founder of Ping Media.
Seated beside each other during a conference seminar, they immediately found common ground. "That's why I'm here today," says Mr. Leland, who joined Ping Media as senior business-development manager in September.
There are additional ways to network more effectively at events. "Be the only person like yourself in the room," Dr. Stybel advises. For instance, he encourages human-resources managers to attend local meetings of Financial Executives International and share their expertise about compensation practices. Because many HR executives report to chief financial officers, those who belong to that professional organization probably hear about promising HR positions.
An offbeat but memorable "elevator pitch" will also make you stand out in a crowd, says Lorraine Howell, a public-speaking trainer in Seattle.
Several years ago, Ms. Howell coached Wimsey Cherrington, a Seattle massage therapist who unearths hidden causes of chronic pain. The therapist was having trouble describing her specialty during gatherings of a women business owners' group. "Networking wasn't working at all," Ms. Cherrington remembers.
Things changed after the therapist began calling herself "a body detective." The catchy description "at least doubled my practice," Ms. Cherrington says.
Still frustrated? Your network may know why. Ask friends, relatives and associates to anonymously assess your strengths and weaknesses through SurveyMonkey.com, an online polling tool, suggests Diane Darling, a Boston networking specialist.
The gambit worked for her. Based on her SurveyMonkey feedback, she realized her artsy-looking purple pantsuits hindered her career success because she didn't look "corporate." Those contacts never "would have ever told me this in person," Ms. Darling says. She fixed her image by buying costly, classic business suits.
Fans of Bruce Mount sang his praises to BzzAgent before he applied to become vice president of engineering of the Boston word-of-mouth marketer.
In late June, the software-development manager asked nearly two dozen present and past colleagues to tout his abilities. "Even one sentence will help!" he assured them. Their testimonials ranged from a brief haiku to a multipage missive dubbing him "a freakin' goldmine of knowledge, ingenuity and kindness."
Mr. Mount's creative approach "made him stand out," recalls Rossana Y. de la Cruz, BzzAgent's director of recruiting. He was the frontrunner among 166 outside prospects. And though the firm ultimately promoted an insider, Ms. de la Cruz vows to consider him again for a relevant vacancy.
Unusual times demand unusual networking tactics. Most candidates find work through networking, surveys show. But in today's dismal job market, many feel frustrated with standard strategies such as tapping friends for referrals.
Clients of Laurence J. Stybel, a Boston outplacement counselor, fret that acquaintances ignore their aid requests because the contacts fear losing their jobs. Anxious about unemployment, people hoard knowledge about openings for themselves and closest friends. Networking "is perceived to be a zero-sum game," the president of Stybel Peabody Lincolnshire says.
What's Wrong With My Job Search?
Possible questions to pose in an anonymous poll of your network:
* What three words come to mind when you think of my strengths? What three words come to mind when you think about areas where I could improve?
* Is there one aspect of my hunt where I am making a big mistake but appear unaware? If yes, what is my mistake?
* What jobs do you think I might be good at that I haven't considered?
* What type of jobs have I looked down on that might pay well?
Source: Diane Darling, CEO of Effective Networking Inc.
"The bar has been raised on what it takes to make networking work," concurs Scott Allen, a consultant about online networking. "Virtual interaction allows us to create the illusion of networking by making electronic links with people," but online ties represent "just a starting point," he says. "You still need some kind of relationship."
For job hunters who use networking Web sites like LinkedIn.com, Mr. Allen favors a more-sophisticated approach. When you invite someone to join you on LinkedIn, he proposes including a personalized offer of help, such as an introduction to a customer or a useful link to a relevant article.
In the real world, you can improve your networking by finding out whether key executives of potential employers will attend a trade group meeting and then scheduling encounters during the event, recommends Brandon Gutman, vice president of business development at Battalia Winston International, a New York search firm. "Don't expect to just show up and bump into these people," he cautions.
Robb Leland wanted to move into mobile marketing, which involves targeting promotions at mobile devices. He identified three mobile-marketing concerns that were listed on an industry association's site as being registered for the group's March 2008 conference. He then contacted officials at the companies, including Shira Simmonds, president and co-founder of Ping Media.
Seated beside each other during a conference seminar, they immediately found common ground. "That's why I'm here today," says Mr. Leland, who joined Ping Media as senior business-development manager in September.
There are additional ways to network more effectively at events. "Be the only person like yourself in the room," Dr. Stybel advises. For instance, he encourages human-resources managers to attend local meetings of Financial Executives International and share their expertise about compensation practices. Because many HR executives report to chief financial officers, those who belong to that professional organization probably hear about promising HR positions.
An offbeat but memorable "elevator pitch" will also make you stand out in a crowd, says Lorraine Howell, a public-speaking trainer in Seattle.
Several years ago, Ms. Howell coached Wimsey Cherrington, a Seattle massage therapist who unearths hidden causes of chronic pain. The therapist was having trouble describing her specialty during gatherings of a women business owners' group. "Networking wasn't working at all," Ms. Cherrington remembers.
Things changed after the therapist began calling herself "a body detective." The catchy description "at least doubled my practice," Ms. Cherrington says.
Still frustrated? Your network may know why. Ask friends, relatives and associates to anonymously assess your strengths and weaknesses through SurveyMonkey.com, an online polling tool, suggests Diane Darling, a Boston networking specialist.
The gambit worked for her. Based on her SurveyMonkey feedback, she realized her artsy-looking purple pantsuits hindered her career success because she didn't look "corporate." Those contacts never "would have ever told me this in person," Ms. Darling says. She fixed her image by buying costly, classic business suits.
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