A few months ago I had the opportunity to participate in a group eBook project run by my good friend Chris Ferdinandi. It was a really great experience and I love sharing the eBook with others. Anyway, I was asked by my buddy Rich from Corn on the Job to participate in another guide with a career focus, and I leaped at the opportunity. I did it not only because Rich asked, but because I also love talking about career concepts. My first writing gig was with a career site, after all!
Tag Archives: Career Advice
Carnival of HR: What it is and why you need it
Every two weeks there is a meeting of the minds. There is an event that occurs that, while relatively unknown, has long-term implications for the profession that I love. It affects the HR community, and it often draws a crowd of participants and spectators from around the globe. It’s the HR Carnival.
What it is
Your brain
The Carnival of HR is a free collection of stories and articles by some of the brightest minds in HR thought leadership. Every two weeks you can find it at a different website. All you have to do is stop in, read anything that interests you, and share it with someone else who might enjoy it.
The most recent edition focused on the SHRM conference and what attendees did or didn’t learn (see the Post-SHRM Breakdown article here). The whole process is powered solely by volunteers who want to help others to learn and grow. I wrote a post months ago about the HR blog carnival and how to make a difference. It’s a great addendum to this post.
My first ever Carnival of HR was last year, and the title was a fun idea I had to get a little attention. Check out 25 Pieces of HR Awesomeness if you’d like to see an example of a Carnival.
Why you need it
Your brain on HR
Most people (including those in the esteemed profession of human resources) stop learning and growing once they get into a job they are comfortable with. That’s not a jab or a complaint, it’s just a fact.
A big goal of mine is helping people love what they do. When you are constantly learning and growing, you enjoy what you do so much more. So give the Carnival of HR a shot. Anything that has a name that festive has to be pretty great, right? :-)
Bonus challenge
Okay, I might have convinced you to check out the carnival by now. If so, that’s fantastic! If not, I’ll ask you this-do you like helping people, sharing neat stuff, and/or building your own credibility? I’m betting that everyone wants to say, “Yes” to that question.
Doing things as small as sharing resources can help others to see you as a credible expert. I’ve shared interesting articles with my own boss that eventually filtered through to other VP’s in the company; those VP’s then stopped by to chat about some of the debatable points in those articles. In the future, if a problem comes up relating to the topic of those conversations we had, then I’m going to be remembered as a solid resource. All that just from sharing a few articles a handful of times.
Going even further
If you ever get wild and crazy and would like to not only read and share the items in the Carnival of HR, but maybe even write something to be added to the Carnival, feel free to contact me about it. I’d love to help.
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Problem: Job Seekers Use Social Media, HR Does Not (Video)
AKA Who’s Driving This Freaking Thing?
(Subscribers may need to click through for the video. The transcript is below if you’re the reading type!)
I see articles every single day teaching job seekers how to use social media to get a job. On the other hand, I also see a lot of legal types doing their best to scare the pants off HR/recruiters who use social media to find candidates.
I\’m sure you\’ve heard that the headline sells the newspaper. Well, I was sucked into watching a recorded webinar the other day based solely on the title. How could I resist something called Blogging, Social Media, and the Workforce? :-)
Anyway, I realized my mistake pretty quickly. I spent 75% of the webinar listening to someone ramble about laws, phones, and email. Ugh. The last few minutes dealt with what the whole webinar should have been about–blogging and social media. Just a few gems I picked up from the webinar, if I might paraphrase:
- If you go to a blog and you decide not to hire because you find out that they are of a specific race or religion, that can be a problem. Whoa, you don\’t say! Wasn’t that already illegal?
- Don\’t let the people who make hiring decisions be the same ones who are using social networks like Facebook. Going to these sites can provide too much information. Huh? That doesn’t even make sense!
Those quotes make me a little queasy. Thankfully I have an antidote in this great comment by Mike Haberman.
When HR people tell me they are too busy in their jobs to use social media, I tell them it should be part of their jobs to use it. The tools are just too valuable to ignore.
I agree completely. Constant growth is a big part of this profession, and putting your head in the sand isn\’t exactly a strategy I\’m a fan of. Think about it. If coaches and other career professionals are telling job seekers to use social media to connect with companies, and you\’re hiding in the basement hoping it will blow over, where does that leave you in the long run? Yeah. Not good.
What are your thoughts?
Video: How to Move up in HR
AKA How to Move Beyond a Crappy Job
A lot of us get frustrated when we want to do work on a level of 10 (while we’re stuck doing work at a level of 1). Â In this video I give you a suggestion I’ve learned from experience about how to make that level 1 work suck less.
Advanced human resources education
One of my friends emailed me recently with a question, and I know it’s a question that a lot of people ask. Even if you haven’t asked me, my opinion’s on its way. Enjoy!
I got my bachelor’s degree in HR in 2008. I have not worked in the field before, and I’m still looking for a job. I just came across an advanced HR program that looks interesting. It costs $4500. Do you think it would be a good idea for me to do this program?
In my (o so unprofessional) opinion, going for further education before you’ve ever stepped foot into your career is a bad idea. Why? Well, what if you do it for a month or two and end up hating it?
That money would be gone forever. Continue reading
How to be brilliant: find someone smarter than you
So. You want to be brilliant, huh? I have a tip to help make that come true. Want to hear?
Find someone smarter than you
Now, let me just start by saying that I\’m by no means brilliant. I am painfully aware of that fact. However, I\’m working to change that by paying attention to people way smarter than me.
I\’ll be the first to admit that it\’s easier to interact with people on your level, but making an effort to step that up and surround yourself with smarter people will have a major effect on your intellect. There\’s a fantastic quote I\’ll defer to that makes the point crystal clear. Continue reading
Detour
Okay, so I usually don’t do this, but today I’m sending you elsewhere to get your weekly RocketHR fix. Please check out this post titled “The HR Capitalist Challenge.”
But please don’t just read the post and walk away. There are three very important questions in there regarding how you make yourself a better HR pro by what you do outside the workplace. I’d really appreciate if you could take 60 seconds and leave a comment on the post.
If you can answer all three questions for yourself in your comment, I’ll feature your response in an upcoming post on the site!
