Do You Need Your Own Video Infomercial

Do You Need Your Own Video InfomercialDo You Need Your Own Video InfomercialPut your personal brand in motion with a video biography that lets your personality shine through.Its hard to stand out in a job search. There are myriad others with similar credentials and experience, so differentiation is key. How do you cut through the clutter and get hiring managers excited about your candidature? One great option is video. In my Top Ten Personal Branding Trends for 2010, I chose video as the No. 1 trend for this year.Deliver a complete communicationThe challenge with resumes and written bios is that you have just words to communicate your message yet words account for only part of your message. (A UCLA study indicated that up to 93 percent of communication effectiveness is determined by nonverbal cues.) When you add body language and vocal variation to the words, you set yourself up to deliver a message thats clearer and mora compelling.Thanks to Web 2.0 and the ubiquity of social media, biographies are quickly becoming an important job-search tool. Video can be the best delivery vehicle for your bio.Some entrepreneurs are building a business in this new territory. According to Catharine Fennell, president and CEO of videoBIO, a video covers everything that cant be said in a resume. This gives job seekers a real opportunity to make a personal connection with prospective employers who make their decisions not only on hard skills and experience but on cultural fit, attitude and communication style. What better way to meet someone in 30 seconds or less.Step off the pageVideo allows you to express your personal brand virtually. We all know hiring managers evaluate you on the education, experience and skills they can see on paper. Those requirements are the table stakes that get you into the game. But in this ultracompetitive job market, there are lots of other players. What can tip the scale in your favor often goes undetected on paper your emotional brand. Use video t o supplement your resume by demonstrating your humor, wit, enthusiasm, empathy and energy.Video is the futureRight now, video is differentiating. There are surprisingly few high-quality video bios on the Web. (Just do a search on YouTube to see whats out there) That gives you the opportunity to stand out and demonstrate yourself as innovative a freebie personal-brand attribute for now. But it wont be long before video becomes the standard vehicle for expressing ourselves on the Web. According to The Global Web Index, with research conducted by Lightspeed Research, 72 percent of U.S. netz users watched video clips monthly making video bigger than blogging or social networking.Thanks to the ubiquity of video-sharing Web sites, cheap bandwidth and a growing interest in watching videos on the Web, you can be sure that video bios will become a standard component of your career-marketing toolbox.Six tips for producing a standout video for your job search1. Know what you want to say. A vi deo bio is not a video resume listing your credentials. Its an opportunity to demonstrate your thought leadership, communicate what you believe and how you deliver value for your employer.2. Be brief. Keep it to two to three minutes. Attention spans are short (and getting shorter).3. Remember, quality trumps quantity. Invest in one high-quality video bio instead of posting lots of mediocre videos to YouTube. Hire the professionals this is an investment in your career. Invest in one high-quality video bio, so make sure youre working with a camera person, professional video editor and other experts.4. Dress appropriately. Also ensure you select clothes without prints or busy patterns (they often dont look right in video). Remember makeup (to ensure you are not shiny). These small details will all contribute to a polished product.5. Maximize distribution. deutsche post ag your video to multiple video sites, including your own Web site and to sites like YouTube, vimeo and blip.tv. Your video bio can be a passive job-search tool as well.6. Promote it. Now that youve invested in your video, make sure it gets seen by those who need to know you. Include it in your e-mail signature, put a link in your LinkedIn profile, tweet it to your Twitter followers and put the link at the top of your resume.

How to Interview for Product Manager Jobs

How to Interview for Product Manager Jobs How to Interview for Product Manager Jobs Ellen Chisa Product Manager at Kickstarter shares her lessons on how to prepare for a product manager interview.Heres her checklist for interview preparationKnow the expectations for the industry, if it isnt what youve interviewed for before.Know the product(s) inside out.Genuinely care about their product, and do extra prep if you dont.Prepare product recommendations.Know which way their product managers lean do you need dev chops? Business? entwurf? Be ready to answer questions that are from the adjacent discipline.Stick with it. Never give up during the interview.Dont let curve ball questions throw off later interviews.If something does throw you off, rebound.Have two different follow-up questions prepared for each interviewer.Its well worth reading the full the articlein which she shares some of her worst interview experiences in order to help us all avoid similar errors.

Top 3 attributes hiring partners look for in law students

Top 3 attributes hiring partners look for in law studentsTop 3 attributes hiring partners look for in law studentsLast Friday, I attended the NALP 2010 Diversity Summit, held at Northwestern University Law School in Chicago. The entire conference was interesting covering such topics as behavioral interviewing, non-partner alternatives to advancement, competency-based compensation, pipeline programs, and how generational differences inform the entire spectrum from recruitment to advancement but probably the standout session for me was the one led by Werten Bellamy, President of Stakeholders, Inc. Associate Competencies The Next Great Diversity Breakthrough or the Next Barrier to Diversity? According to Bellamy, Associate competencies are potentially the biggest breakthrough for diversity in the last 30 years. And in his detailed and engaging presentation, he proceeded to outline how such frameworks offer real routes to success for diverse lawyers. But in order to succeed, law studen ts and associates need to know how they will be judged, both in interviews and at subsequent stages of their careers. They need not only to know what is expected of them, but also to understand why it is expected and how they can achieve it. At least some of the gap between diverse lawyers efforts and their success seems to stem from inadequate information or preparation on these points. The law firm reward system (hiring, evaluation, career progression) is a form of prepayment. Firms are making predictive judgments of what they believe associates will be one day. This represents a shift for law students, because in their academic lives rewards are based on past achievement. Bellamy cited a study that asked respondents to rank the relative importance of the following six attributes in hiringPositive attitudeWriting skillsResilience/work ethicAdvocacy skillsmanahmeAnalytic skillsWhile diverse lawyers ranked writing skills, advocacy skills and analytical skills highest, partners said the most important attributes are a positive attitude, resilience/work ethic and initiative. Law schools should help students understand these gateway attributes and how theyve manifested themselves in their experience. These attributes are important to partners because they have relational value their presence suggests candidates have other, related attributes, while their absence suggests a lack thereof. For exampleInitiative suggests motivation, reliability, ability to juggle tasks and anticipate needs (conversely, if a student lacks initiative, its hard to see him as a go-getter). Positive attitude suggests the person is responsive, likeable, loyal, with ability to inspire and accept critique, and willingness to sacrifice. Resilience suggests the candidate can work under stress, adapt, imagine possibilities, persevere. These attributes are also difficult to teach, whereas advocacy, writing and analytical skills are easier to train. Law students need to understand the interview from the partners perspectiveThey consider past experiences. They have a reference point (i.e., a standard against which they measure performance). Students should know what this reference point is. They expect that their preferences are already known to the candidates. Students need to know what these preferences are. According to Bellamy, these are the questions that concern an interviewing partnerCan this person attract my investment? What will it feel like to work with this person? Does this student want my life? to make the same sacrifices? Can this student positively engage and contribute to the firm culture? Can this person earn my trust? Tomorrow, more thoughts on diverse associates and competency frameworks.- posted by vera